The swinging city on the Danube lay at the edge of the Free World during the uneasy decades of the communist threat, and was close enough to feel the icy breath of the" Siberian bear". In fact between 1945 and 1955 it was divided into sectors by the Allies just like Berlin, with the Russians making a rare retreat in return for Austrian neutrality.

Long before the Soviets forced their utopian ideology on the peoples of Central Europe, Vienna lived its glory days as its unquestioned capital. The huge Habsburg Empire encompassed everything between Bavaria in the west and Romania in the east, the Vistula in the north and the Adriatic in the south. 

The flavors of life from the far-flung provinces spiced things up with the resulting cocktail that is Viennese. Although they speak German, they are far removed from the dour Prussian stereotypes of joyless obedience, they are nowhere as thrifty or colorless as the Hamburgers and Hanoverians, and positively abhor Swiss perfection as the antithesis of carefree life. Thus their soft, melodious German has a touch of Italian charm, French joie de vivre and especially a sprinkle of Slavic sentimentality and melancholy that is so absent in Baden, for instance. They are even further removed from their fellow Tautens than Americans are from their British cousins.

This article is not about the waltzes, the symphonies, or the blue Danube. Those sites are a good excuse for a first visit, but if one wants to penetrate deeper, to see what the locals treasure, then one must abandon the crowds of tourists that clog the inner city and head for the woods, or suburbs at the very least.  

In America the word suburb connotes awful images of endless tacky strip malls, nasty gas stations and cookie cutter wooden barns that are really houses and serve essentially as dormitories when one is home from work. In Europe it is quite different, especially in places not wiped out during World War II. Viennese suburbs are compact and each district preserves its individuality. There are few high-rise prefabricated concrete projects to mar the landscape. Most people still live happily in 2 or 3-story tenements from the 19th century. Vienna is one of the very few cities whose population decreased during the twentieth century, so has been no need to build modern eyesores. 

On the city's footstep in the 22nd District stretches the Lobau, a national park. Within the city limits lay thousands of acres of almost pristine marshland and swamps, interconnected by various arms of the free flowing Danube. Unlike the city center, where the river has been ruthlessly canalized, here it still is allowed to flood endless meadows during the spring thaw and autumn rains. Gently swaying reeds, thick deciduous forests curling up along the river’s bosom and the flat fields beyond are definitely not the Austria of popular imagination with its craggy Alpine peaks and sheer rock faces. 

This is the most authentic part of Austria, unmarred by tourists and as such, is Vienna's secret back yard. The locals love to take long walks here in the autumn when the leaves are a riot of color and the chatter of migrating birds fills the air. Long wooded paths stretch to the Slovak border, a good 8-hour walk east of Vienna. This province, called Burgenland, was until 1920 part of the Hungarian region of the Habsburg domains. At that time it separated its majority German-speaking population and voted to secede and join Austria. Allegedly there are still large Slovak and Hungarian minorities here, though they are so well assimilated that you will be lucky to hear those languages spoken. 
 
Most visitors to Vienna arrive at the ever-expanding Swechat International Airport and quickly take a train to the city. Few know that the National Park Lobau abuts the airport runways directly to the north, and that just a few miles to the east lie some of the most fascinating ancient ruins north of the Alps. These ruins, located between the towns of Petrolleum- Carnuntum and Bad Deutsch Altenburg can be easily reached by the trains of S7 suburban line. Today both towns are small and insignificant, but between the first and fourth century AD the capital of the Roman province Pannonia with its 70,000 inhabitants, stood as a bulwark against barbarian incursions. 

The Danube formed a natural line of defence for the Roman Empire, which had to be reinforced every 30 km or so by a fortified castle with a settlement. Vienna known then as Vindebona was such a settlement. However, along the Danube, none were as important as Carnuntum. Emperor Marcus Aurelius made it his home base when overseeing his troops, spent more time here than in Italy, and wrote one of the classic books on ancient philosophy called Meditations. That the flat featureless and at that time undoubtedly thickly wooded landscape could inspire the author, is a testament to the lyrical qualities of the soft plains and the blue ribbon of the great river. A river which centuries later gave the world Mozart, Beethoven and no less than two Strauss’s.

The regional museum in Bad Deutsch Altenburg shelters a lot of mosaics and objects of daily living recovered by the farmers from their fields, but it is a better idea to walk along the fields from site to site. On the edge of Petronell stands the Haidentor, or Barbarian Gate, the loftiest example of Roman fortifications in northern Europe with the exception of the Porta Nigra in Trier. The arch is suspended between two 15 meter tall tapered towers. 

The region abutting Vienna to the west is more heavily visited, perhaps because due its hilly nature it appears more typically “Austrian." Yet it is low key when compared to Tirol or the Salzkammergut. The scenic peaks and valleys of this area are little known to all but the locals.

In the south-eastern part of the city, in District #13, also known as Hietzing the former hunting preserve of the Habsburgs now welcomes visitors. Maria Theresa and her offspring liked to escape the endless court intrigues in the nearby Schonbrünn Palace for a leisurely afternoon hunt. Here they could shoot deer and boars, which were often directly released from the cages in front of the nozzles of their guns so as to make the hunt effortless. 

Emperor Joseph, Maria Theresa's successor, wanted to give his prey a little more chance so he preferred to chase them up and down nearby hills with his hounds instead. He ordered a 20 km long brick wall built to keep his menagerie firmly in check. This original 3-meter high wall still stands, separating an area more than twice the size of New York's Central Park from the rest of the Wienerwald or Vienna Woods. It is now a nature preserve, protected from developers. The royal menagerie lives on in the form of large enclosures near the main entrance where deer, moufflons, elk and European bison graze contently. 

The trek up to the Hubertus Warte, at 542 meters the highest peak in the city, some 300 meters higher than the marshes of the Lobau at its eastern end; is particularly worthwhile for the far reaching views it affords. In October, if not for the Gothic spires of the inner city shimmering in the distance, one has the illusion of being somewhere in New England. To the west the views include the ranges of the Wienerwald, which reach their crescendo in the visible stone fields of the Northern Limestone Alps, the first truly “Alpine" range and a harbinger of the Tyrolean giants. 

19th century Austria, like the rest of the western world, saw great expansion of its cities. Between 1815 and 1914 Vienna grew from 230,000 to two million. To supply water to the growing population, a series of aqueducts were built. Perhaps the most impressive aqueduct lies on the southernmost outskirts of Vienna, in Radoun, which can be easily reached by a 20-minute ride on tram # 60 from Schonbrünn to its terminus. A huge masonry span throws its shadows across the gully that is at least half a mile wide and 100 meters deep. Even though the bricks are little more than a century old, they have aged so gracefully that many mistake it for a Roman ruin. But it is still very much a working pipeline. 

Those are the highlights of secret Vienna… if you wish to enjoy the city and surroundings like the locals, follow my advice!