Whatever your lodging choice, reserve early if you’re going for one of the major festivals, as the town will be packed with visitors and beds tend to become rare and expensive. Six months in advance is not too soon to begin your inquiries.

Yet the title of the song is wonderfully apt. Salzburg is the sort of town that invites the anointing of favorite things: a place filled with charm, surprise, and memorable delights both large and small — from the fantastic horse sculptures in the grandiose fountain of the Residenz, to the sublimely sinful pastries of the endless Konditoreien (bakery shops) that seemingly appear on every streetcorner. When you visit, you are sure to come away with favorites of your own; at the top of the list will be Salzburg itself.

An organized tour stands ready to guide you through the staterooms and offices in which the archbishops wielded their tremendous power — not to mention the torture chambers and dungeons which helped them keep it. If you’re fit & nimble and the weather is dry, consider hiking back to town instead of taking the funicular; poke around the castle grounds a bit and you’ll find a steep winding trail that leads downward through woods and quiet shady arbors, before suddenly surprising you with Salzburg. (Note that use of the trail in winter months is discouraged by castle authorities, who doubtless fear lawsuits from tumbling tourists; if you find it blocked off by a chain, the going is likely to be difficult and you’re well advised to take the hint.)

but it became best known for its brisk trade in salt from the nearby Dürnberg mines, and Salzburg was the name that stuck. In time an even brisker trade would be conducted by men in red robes, as the town became and remained a power base for the mighty archbishops of the German church. Their wealth led to much splendid building besides the sprawling bulk of the castle: a massive Dom, or cathedral, completed in the 8th century, was the talk of Europe for five hundred years due to the vast size of its towers. Eventually it was destroyed by Barbarossa, and replaced with a smaller but more elegant Romanesque building which still stands. Also still standing, also elegantly, is the elaborate Archbishops’ Residenz, once home to some of Salzburg’s wealthiest red robes; now secularized, it offers a museum of fine art to go with its own extravagant architecture.

Erentrudis — noted above — which is more formally called the Benediktinerinnenstift Nonnberg, and is believed to have been the earliest convent established in German-speaking Europe. On the outskirts of town, the Carolino Augusteum Museum tends a worthwhile collection of Flemish and French masters, along with a great deal of fascinating material unearthed in excavations made in the area of Salzburg’s Dom.

Few sights in Europe are so dramatic as your first glimpse of the fortress castle of Salzburg, looming high above the city with the blue-green foothills of the Alps as a backdrop. Known as the Hohensalzburg, the massive compound — built from the 11th century onward as an endless series of additions to an archbishop’s estate — is only the most visible sign that this historic mountain town, one of Europe’s oldest, has its stories to tell.

The stories go well beyond the birthing of a brilliant composer, though that’s certainly one which Salzburg will not soon tire of recounting. When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart entered the world here in January of 1756, St. Rupert’s nearby Convent of St. Erentrudis was already a thousand years old; but the young genius quickly outstripped it in fame. Though Mozart spent most of his later life in Vienna, his famous early compositions were made in Salzburg, and both his birthplace and a townhouse where his family resided are among the town’s most popular attractions. (As is, fairly enough, St. Erentrudis.)