The Last Passengersof the Empire

Stay

• Grand Ferdinand, on the Ringstrasse — 4.5 star, sleek rather than palatial, with the restaurant and lounge under the same roof. →

• Upgrade option — Hotel Imperial, 5 star. Built in 1863 as a private residence for Duke Philipp of Württemberg, it became a grand hotel for the 1873 World’s Fair and remains one of Vienna’s great historic hotels. →

Evening

• Café Landtmann — grand, spacious, and easier to settle into than the city’s more famous cafés. Short walk or taxi past the Rathaus and Burgtheater. A first outing, not a bucket-list stop.

Day

• The Hofburg and the Ringstrasse on foot: a grand sweep through the ceremonial centre of the old empire.

• The House of Habsburg walking tour. →

  Included with admission: The House of Habsburg audio tour, plus access to several Neue Hofburg collections. Explore beyond the tour if something catches your eye.

The standout

• Palais Coburg's underground wine cellar — the fixed second-Thursday-of-the-month tasting, five wines, €99pp. The magnificent wine cellar was constructed inside historical ruins from the 16th century. The palais was the residence of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family, one of Europe's great dynastic houses. →

Afternoon

• Café Central — Vienna’s legendary literary coffeehouse, associated with writers, thinkers and figures including Stefan Zweig and Sigmund Freud. Currently undergoing renovation, with reopening expected in late 2026; worth revisiting once your dates are set.

Alternate

• The Wiener Gemischter Satz masterclass — two hours at one table, six Austrian wines including Vienna's field blend, with cheese and cured meat. →

Morning

• The Jewish Museum Vienna, or a morning built around the Anschluss and its aftermath. Quieter, heavier, necessary.

• Self-guided walk — “War and Reconstruction,” an introduction to Vienna's twentieth-century history with the context intact. →

Optional

• Self-guided walk — through the Vienna of Sigmund Freud, on the city's own iVie app. →

Afternoon

• Choose one of two Viennese institutions for a slower afternoon: Demel for imperial spectacle, or Café Bräunerhof for a quieter literary room.

Cake, two ways

• Demel, Kohlmarkt 14, behind the Hofburg — official confectioner to the imperial court from 1786, and supplier to Empress Elisabeth, who kept a standing order for their candied violets. They still make them. Neo-Baroque gold, marble and chandeliers, plus a small museum of the imperial pastry trade.

• Café Bräunerhof — calmer, less theatrical and deeply literary. It was the regular café of novelist and playwright Thomas Bernhard, whose relationship with Austria was as severe, funny and complicated as the country itself.

The rail day

• The Semmering Railway is where the story becomes physical: sixteen tunnels, fifteen viaducts, and the world’s first high-mountain railway. Completed in 1854 to carry the empire over the Alps toward the Adriatic, it remains the route south. Arrive Graz by early afternoon.

• Railjet Business Class — recommended upgrade. The most comfortable way to experience the railway’s centerpiece on the Vienna → Graz Semmering journey.

• Book the leg directly with ÖBB — the official source for Railjet fares and seat reservations. →

In Graz

• The Schlossberg is reached by funicular, with the best views over the city and its red roofs.

A Styrian pantry — Stadtbauernladen Graz

• A city farmers’ shop showcasing the region’s best producers. Stop in to sample and pick up some of Styria’s celebrated pumpkin seed oil and other local specialties. →

DINE

• Aiola Upstairs — a café above the city, with the same views and a quieter pause. →

Stay

• Hotel Wiesler, Graz — a historic Art Nouveau hotel on the river. →

Do

• A lake cruise with Wörthersee Schifffahrt, followed by time along the lakeside promenade. This is the trip's deliberate pause between rail days. →

Stay

• Then, the castle. After the lake, settle into Schloss Velden for an unhurried afternoon and evening.

• Schloss Velden — an actual castle-hotel on the lake. A good bridge between grand-and-historic and genuinely relaxing. →

In Ljubljana

• The old imperial geography continues south, but Ljubljana feels distinctly different: smaller, quieter, and unmistakably Slovenian.

• Follow the pedestrianised old town along the river, then take the funicular to Ljubljana Castle.

A literary pause

• Hiša sanjajočih knjig — an independent bookshop near Prešeren Square, with English-language fiction, poetry and translated Slovenian authors. A lovely place to browse rather than a place to “visit.” →

Dine — choose the evening

• Birdie — an off-the-beaten-path culinary adventure centered around a curated, social food-sharing concept. →

• Georgie Bistro — Michelin-guided, chef-forward modern cooking right near the center. →

• Most — a vibrant atmosphere, traditional flavors, and a beautiful view of the water. →

Stay

• Grand Hotel Union — historic, central, Art Nouveau, with literary associations of its own. →

Tickets

• The cross-border corridor sells as a through-ticket on ÖBB, or directly via Slovenian Railways. →

Do

• Visitors ride an electric train deep into the cave system before continuing through its vast chambers. One of the most dramatic karst sites in Europe. →

• Return to Ljubljana for a second, unhurried night.

1 · Ljubljana → Nova Gorica

• Take a Slovenian Railways service via Sežana. The line crosses the Karst plateau through limestone country and dry-stone villages, then descends through vineyards into the Vipava Valley. →

2 · The station on the border

• Step out of Nova Gorica's grand 1906 station directly onto Trg Evrope / Piazza della Transalpina. The 1947 border once cut this square in two; today a mosaic marks the line between Slovenia and Italy.

• The station still has a public cafeteria and a small museum room. Stop here for coffee or a simple meal inside the building that once faced the Iron Curtain.

3 · Gorizia → Trieste

• Continue from Gorizia Centrale on a Trenitalia regional train to Trieste, roughly hourly and about 51 minutes. In 2025 the two border cities shared the European Capital of Culture title as GO! Borderless — the first cross-border pairing in the programme's history. →

Stay

• Savoia Excelsior Palace — a grand Art Deco hotel on the harbour, built for exactly the Habsburg-era travellers whose empire you have been tracing, and priced well below flagship luxury. →

Evening

• Evening at leisure. Settle into the hotel and let the evening unfold from there.

Do

• Piazza Unità d'Italia — one of Europe's great seafront squares, opening directly onto the Adriatic.

• Caffè San Marco and Caffè degli Specchi. Joyce, Svevo and Saba all drank here.

• Afternoon at Miramare Castle, with a genuinely strange political footnote: built for Archduke Maximilian, who was offered the Mexican crown here in 1864. He accepted, sailed for Mexico from Miramare’s pier — and was executed three years later. An empire’s small, sad export.

Olive oil, Karst-style

• Trieste's olive oil culture is tied to the Karst just beyond the city.

• Option 1 — Meet the producer. A tasting with a local olive-oil producer outside the city, with the Karst landscape as part of the experience.

• Option 2 — Taste in town. A more effortless city-center tasting featuring local extra-virgin olive oil alongside regional wines and other specialties.

Dine

• Tavernetta al Molo — in the small fishing harbor at Grignano, directly beside Miramare Castle. A cozy interior and a summer terrace right on the water; the local crudo platters and whole grilled wild sea bass are the standout orders.

Ancient

• Aquileia, a short ride away — a UNESCO Roman site whose extraordinary basilica mosaics survive from the fourth century. One of the richest ancient sites in Europe.

Modern

• The Risiera di San Sabba, inside Trieste itself, was a Nazi camp. A heavier, more direct encounter with the Second World War than almost anywhere else on this route — and unlike other versions of that story, this one sits inside the city you are sleeping in.

Dine

• Pier the Roof — a farewell to the Adriatic, with a rooftop table above the city. Contemporary seafood and a wide view of the water you have been travelling toward since Vienna. →