I spent the last couple of days day dreaming categorizing all the Italian posts, filing them in the proper locations. On the left side you can now see the five categories under Italy…
Venice, the lakes, and other parts are not there because I dont have enough blog posts on them (at the moment the count is about 0). Here are all the tips you need on Venice: The greatest museum in the world: Rialto market. The greatest bite post the greatest museum in the world: Antiche Carampane. That is it. Once I come back, I will start writing on Venice and the rest of them.
But I must say, out of the 290 posts published so far since I started this blog, the Italy posts are by far my favorite. Sure its nice to write about my home town, my adapted home town, and even New Orleans once in a while which produced the most viewed post on EWZ (571 shares on Facebook alone). But the Italy posts, while not much in the way of generating traffic for some reason, are the reason why it took me two days to do this. A lot of staring and day dreaming. Italy is the reason I have a hard time getting overly excited about our trip next month to Prague, Salzburg, Vienna. It spoiled me forever
Gattavecchi crew in Montepulciano
Eating With Ziggy 
Do you like cake? Vienna has wonderful, charming cakes, especially if you move beyond sacher torte and strudel. It also has interesting wine. Since you are going in nice weather, you might want to check out some wineries on the periphery of Vienna. You might be too early for apricots, but try to find out, because if you aren’t, they are famous. For sights, I felt the Belvedere was unexpectedly very very lovely, especially the view from the upper palace. Much more interesting than the Schoenbrunn. If you like art, the Kunsthistoriches is magnificent and the National Library nearby has a spectacular interior. You know Austria used to rule part of Italy, so you might be able to find a restaurant or two that serves food from Fruili-Venezia-Giulia or the Alto Adige if you are missing Italy.
We are spending some time in Prague and Salzburg prior to Vienna, and plan to stop at one of the wineries by the Danube on the way. Not too in love with cakes overall, but do plan on tasting my share. I plan to mix it up a little food wise. Some seafood, Italian, maybe even Korean. Should be interesting, but its not Italy. Thanks for the tips and the insight as usual Mr Forbes
I’ve never been to Prague or Salzburg — but have heard that beer really shines in Prague. One thing I regret about my eating plan in Vienna is that I didn’t sample more sausage. Every time I had some sausage in a restaurant (it comes with many dishes or as an appetizer plate), I really enjoyed it. These “sausages” are your basic pink hot dog/frankfurter-type weiners, but fresher, sweeter and higher quality than what you typically get in New York. When I go back to Vienna, I would probably skip most sit down restaurants entirely and focus instead on grazing — i.e.., sausages and the gourmet food shops and vinotheks — but for me, that choice would be driven by the fact that I would want to leave room for sampling pastry 3 or 4 times a day, which doesn’t sound like your style. But if you are tempted by the idea of sausage and mustard, I have heard that the two best are the one near the Albertina and the one in the Hoher market area, neither of which I tried. You might try google for more info.
I’m sympathetic to your plight, because I personally can’t stand schnitzel, tafelspitz or kaiserschmarr’n or knoedl, and several other Teutonic classics, although I do like sauerkraut and crunchy pickled everything. To me, the 2 most interesting dishes I had in restaurants in Vienna were blunzengrostl, which is a very low down, ugly looking blood sausage stew, very rich, and goulash with egg. I’m not sure I’d want to eat either in warm weather, but goulash seems to me the epitome of Vienna, with its amazing history of immigration. Goulash is such a mishmash of competing flavors and influences, it just sort of screams Vienna. I suspect no two places make it the same way, so can’t recommend where to go to get the “best” if you’re interested.
But enjoy your trip. If you haven’t watched The Third Man or The Grand Budapest Hotel, it might help put you in a mittleuropa mood.
“But I must say, out of the 290 posts published so far since I started this blog, the Italy posts are by far my favourite.”
Mine too, Ziggy! And you know your fame and the respect people have for you is growing ever greater? I recommended a restaurant to a soon-to-be visitor to Tuscany recently. They wrote back a few days later saying thanks but no thanks. For they had done their research and learnt that Ziggy of Eating with Ziggy Fame ate somewhere else when he was in that particular village and they’d feel safer going there!!! I couldn’t argue with that! ciao, M
Too funny! Thanks for the laugh M