The vast ensemble of visitor attractions in Vienna is quite compact, covering about one square mile, so you can easily see it all in three well-planned days. This Austrian city is a fantasy in stone built in a mix of styles including Gothic, Renaissance, 19th-century Imperial, Art Nouveau, and Postmodern, blending influences from Italy, Germany and France into a harmonic Viennese mélange.
The layout of Vienna is very organized and easy to navigate, with the central part of town surrounded by the Ringstrasse, or Ring Road, following the same route as the medieval city walls that once surrounded and protected the city. The fortification walls played two important roles for many centuries during the Middle Ages: keeping various enemies away and containing the town in a small area. Most of the neighborhoods within this central area still have a very ancient feeling to them.