Vienna is the grand capital of music. Hadyn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert all thrived in its bubbling coffee-house culture and came to pay court to the Habsburgs and to each other. Today along the Kartnerstrasse, Vienna's central shopping street, busy Viennese still hover patiently as buskers tune up. Even the mobile phones chime.
Now is a good time to ride Vienna's trams around the Ringstrasse, looping the old city. The opera season is starting and, with Christmas approaching, Vienna lights up like a sparkler.
But the home of so much pleasure is also the city of Freud and that artistic reject Hitler; a place that can still cast truly grotesque shadows. For an outsider Vienna can be over-rich to say the least and, on a weekend break, penetrating its charmed musical circle is as intimidating as the overmighty Hofburg palace. Fear not though, Vienna is actually remarkably easy to get around.
Tuning up
Buy a Vienna Card (£9 for three days - from underground stations and tobacconists) for unlimited use of trams, subway and discounts to most museums. For anyone vaguely nervous of all that noise, there is only one place to start. Just three months old, Vienna's newest, slickest, most hi-tech museum, the Haus der Musik, is a revelation. It starts with a computerised introduction to the sounds of music and music of sounds, and ends in a futuristic playground of sonic massages and sound morphing. You can even conduct the Vienna Philharmonic courtesy of a computer program masterminded by the university of Linz.
For a genuine insight into what made all those metronomes tick, the coupes de theatre are the walk-through biographies of Vienna's seven great composers, from "Papa" Hadyn to Mahler and the dissonance of the 20th-century Viennese School. They brilliantly weave their stories into the fabric of the city and show how music, beginning in the churches, moved to the court and aristocratic salons, then through Schubert's open-air gatherings to the all-popular waltzes of the Strausses, preparing the way, in the collapse of empire and two world wars, for the shattering atonalities of the 20th century. "When you hear a sound you are also hearing the space in which it is made." It couldn't be truer than in Vienna.
Haus Der Musik, Seilerstatte 30. (+4315164851 www.houseofmusic-vienna.at). Open 10am-10pm daily. Adults £5, family ticket £11.
Next stop the Hofburg palace and an exhibition of 16th-century musical instruments, not just to touch bass but as an introduction to the Habs burgs. The winter palace of the Holy Roman emperor Franz Joseph, who defined the staggering pomp and circumstance of the 19th- century city, the Hofburg lies at Vienna's epicentre. It symbolises how this capital of an empire, once uniting 56 million people in the heart of the European maelstrom, became such a glittering focus for art and culture.
The Hofburg could take a weekend in itself but a must on a short trip is the Hofburg Chapel where every Sunday morning you can hear the Vienna Boys Choir. Make sure to get a seat near the front, otherwise you will have to peer at those angelic faces on a monitor.
Instruments of the 16th Century - National Library in the Hofburg Palace, Innere Stadt. Open 10am-5.30am except Tuesday. £2.50.
If the Hofburg testifies to the importance of patrons, it is the composers who play on and, armed with enough anecdotes, Vienna's drama explodes in the places they frequented. I didn't know Beethoven was always running upstairs or that Mozart spent a third of his life in carriages.
Everywhere you'll see plaques to Vienna's musical worthies, but two of the most important pilgrimage sites are the Pasqualati House and The Figaro House . Beethoven - who moved house 97 times - found a burgherish patron in Herr Pasqualati. The charming Figaro House lies in cobbled streets behind the all-imposing St Stephen's, the only surviving residence of Vienna's best loved visitor, Wolfgang Amadeus. Under the baroque ceiling in his bedroom you do get a real sense of Mozart's (or perhaps Peter Schaffer's) Vienna. Headphones and digital harpsichords allow you to indulge in some of the greatest works in situ.
It was the commercially-minded Strausses who really began to exploit popular music with their celebrated waltzes. Although the Danube is not and never has been blue, as you will see from the tributary that now forms Vienna's famous canal, you will hear the strains of waltzes everywhere. Vienna's ball season starts again too in November, although it doesn't reach its peak until January and February.
PasqualatiHaus, Molkerbastei 8. FigaroHaus, Domgasse 5. Johann Strauss Memorial Rooms, Praterstrasse 54. All open 9am-12.15pm, 1pm-4.30pm Tues- Sun. Closed Jan 1, May 1 & Dec 25.
Nights at the opera
The two main concert halls are the Musikverein (1 Bösendorferstrasse 12, tel: 505 8190) and the Konzerthaus (3 Lothringerstrasse 3, tel: 712 1211), home of the Vienna Philharmonic and Symphony orchestras.
But the high altar of musical culture is the splendid Staatsoper (1 Opernring 2, tel: 5144 42960), completely rebuilt in 1945. Sometimes, the humourless Viennese could do with the Marx brothers around, but for me there was no greater thrill than watching those deep-red curtains rise on a production of Verdi's Enani, as well-dressed Viennese showed their love, knowledge and appreciation in one of the world's greatest opera houses. Of course, seats are expensive but you can stand for around £5 - if you can get tickets.
Try, too, the Volksoper (9 Währingerstrasse 78, tel: 51 444) - the People's Opera. Far more relaxed, it still reaches a high standard and you are more likely to hear the strains of Figaro or Don Giovanni drifting through the doors.
For tickets to everything theatrical and musical, go to the Bundestheatrekassen (1 Hanuschgasse 3, down from the opera house, tel:5144 42960).
Tone deaf
If music isn't your thing, Vienna has plenty of other attractions. It is a city of theatres and museums, 90 in fact. A reason to go now is the exhibition in the Belvedere of Klimt's Women; a banquet of the painter's rich, jewelled colours, and decadent sensuality. To escape take a boat along the canal and loop out into the Danube.
Klimt's Women, Belvedere, Landstrasse. Until Jan 7. Open 10am-6pm except Mondays. Thurs to 7pm. £5. www.klimt-frauen.at.
In Vienna, even the horses love to dance and though it's difficult to get tickets you can watch them training in the mornings at the Spanish Riding School (Hofburg, Josefplatz).
Fiakers, Vienna's famous horse-drawn carriages, are very expensive and far better value is a personal guided tour.
For some darker notes, try the Prater Park and the sounds of the funfair. From the famous Ferris wheel where Harry Lime spills the beans in The Third Man you can gaze out across the city, over to the UN building, housing among other things the Drug Control Agency. For film buffs there is also a guided tour down to the sewers, called The Return of The Third Man (tel: 585 6455).
Where to eat
Vienna is almost as famous for food as music. The Sacher Hotel (1 Philharmonikerstrasse 4, behind the Opera House, tel: 514 560) invented the sachertorte (chocolate cake) for Prince Metternich, and everywhere windows groan with pastries, puddings and sweets. This is all most pleasurable in the city's numerous coffee houses.
Several boast musical associations but my favourites are the pink-fronted Café Diglas (1, Wollzeile 10, tel: 512 8401), and Hawelka (1 Dorotheerhasse 6, tel: 512 8230), still frequented by artists and musicians.
The tourist board has an excellent booklet of concert-cafés.
Café Landtmann (1 Dr-Karl-Lueger-Ring 4, tel: 532 0621) was a favourite of Freud's and is great for music.
You shouldn't leave Vienna without trying tafelspitz , a delicious Viennese beef stew, best at Plachutta (1 Wollzeile 38, tel: 512 1577). For lunch, Hansen (1 Wipplingerstrasse 34 in the basement of the Stock Exchange, tel: 532 0542) is trendy, the Cantino (at the top of the Haus der Musik) good, while Zum Zwarzen Kameel (1 Bognergasse 5, tel: 533 8967) is famous for its reislings and a still-unpaid bill of Beethoven's.
If you are going to the opera, be careful because Vienna seems to close suprisingly early. However, there is a good restaurant right opposite the Volksoper and several places to eat next to the Staatsoper. Corso (1 Hotel Bristol, Mahlerstrasse 2, tel: 5151 6546) is wonderful if you are really pushing the boat out, but for an after-opera meal go next door. Drei Husaren (1 Weihburggasse 4, tel: 5121 0920) is another famous upmarket restaurant, while Barbaro's (1 Kärtner Strasse 19, tel: 513 1712) at the top of a modern department store is not expensive and has great views. A traditional pre-opera tipple is a glass of champagne at the Reiss Bar ( Marco D'aviano-Gasse 1).
For some real life and the street culture that fed all that genius, try the student bars around Juden Strasse.
Where to stay
As everything happens in the charmed inner circle, district number 1 is the only place to stay. Our hotel the Romischer-Kaiser (1 Rathausstrasse 17, just next to the Haus Der Musik, tel: 512 7751) is both comfortable and elegant.
Another delightful though expensive hotel is König Von Ungarn - The King of Hungary (1 Schulerstrasse 10, tel: 515 84, doubles around £120). With a lovely inner courtyard it is next to Mozart's house and the Café Diglas just round the corner.
For somewhere cheaper, try Drei Kronen (Schleifmühlgasse 25, tel: 710 1919, doubles £44 per night) in the unmissable Naschmarkt, Vienna's most exciting market.
• David Clement-Davies' novel Fire Bringer is published in paperback by Macmillan at £5.99.
The practicals
Inghams Eurobreak (020-8780 7700, www.inghams.co.uk) offers two nights at the four-star Hotel Romischer Kaiser for £172 per person including Buzz return flights from Stansted and a free Dorling Kindersley guidebook worth £14.99. Tickets for the Volksoper (£14-£61) and Staatsoper (£17-£165) and the half-day city tour (£22pp) can be booked in advance through Inghams.
