In the spa town of Bad Ischl, east of Salzburg, Austria

 Sitting between baroque Salzburg and Austria’s alps, Bad Ischl, the 2024 European Capital of Culture combines the appeal of both.

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(in Bad Ischl, the Alps' first European Capital of Culture) Every summer day at 6am, the 19th-century Empress Elisabeth of Austria, also known as Sissi, left her holiday hunting lodge in the Austrian resort of Bad Ischl to hike up Jainzen, the forested mountain looming just behind. The average ascent is around an hour, but they say it took the tall, tattooed wife of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I just 40 minutes to reach the peak. With the spare time, she might ride one of her 50 horses, exercise on wooden machines she designed for her home gym, scoff violet pastries, or smoke in her lavish gardens. Over a century since Sisi’s death, this town east of Salzburg remains a summer playground among wellness enthusiasts and anyone with two poles to hike with. It is a gateway to the Alpine lakes and mountains of Salzkammergut, a region whose name translates to "salt domain," a nod to a local salt-mining tradition that dates back 7,000 years. It’s partly due to this history and pastoral charm that the entire region was anointed one of three 2024 European Capitals of Culture, with Bad Ischl (the banner town) the first rural, Alpine destination to wear the mantle.

+ Visitors shouldn't miss tasting the glossy iced gateaux at Zauner Café in the center, which serves glossy iced gateaux, steps from the villa where 19th-century composer Anton Bruckner penned his symphonies. A 15th-century church steeple still presides over the cobbled square, lined with lederhosen shops.

+ The other forgotten attraction to be revived for the festivities is the vintage cog Schafberg Railway. At just over 3.5 miles in length, the line from Saint Wolfgang, another village in the region, heads around 4,000 ft. up Schafberg mountain. From its peak, the landscape unfurls to the hazy horizon: Bad Ischl to the east, the white-capped Alps to the south and, all around, the region’s 76 glacial lakes, pure and sapphire-blue.

+ In St Wolfgang, where some women still wear dirndls when grocery shopping, the top table is lakeside at Landhaus zu Appesbach: opt for the venison, served with brioche dumplings and Burgundermacher pinot. Walk the meal off around the village, where a 12th-century church attracts Catholics. Locals cram into the next-door fishery for plates of wood-smoked char supplied by the lake’s sole licensed fisherman; those in the know hit the shop before the 6pm closing to stock up for a sunset picnic. Ischia's "fecund" volcanic soil and subtropical microclimate make it extraordinarily lush, with "wisteria, angel's trumpets and bougainvillea" cascading around its "steep, single-lane" roads. Inland, the "rustic" Fonte delle Ninfe Nitrodi is thought to be the world's oldest spa, dating back to the days of Magna Graecia.