Bregenz.

Bregenz is the capital of Vorarlberg, set on the shores of Lake Constance where Austria meets Germany and Switzerland. Its summer opera festival, the Bregenzer Festspiele, stages productions on a floating stage built out over the water, with the lake and the Alps as a backdrop. The old town keeps its medieval core, with narrow lanes leading down to the lakeside promenade. A cable car climbs from the edge of the city to the top of the Pfänder, where paths follow the ridge and views stretch across the lake into three countries. The Kunsthaus Bregenz shows contemporary art in changing exhibitions. Cafés and restaurants along the promenade keep an easy rhythm even outside the festival months, when the lake takes on quieter colours and the mountains close in with early snow.