Introduction to Austria

With the exception of the folder on Vienna, these pictures focus on Western Austria, where the spine of the Alps extends eastward from Switzerland to form, with the Otztaler and Zillertaler alps, the border between Austria and Italy.  The spine continues east in the Hohe Tauern, which are wholly in Austria and include Austria's highest peak, the Grossglockner (12,460 feet). Romans in search of high mountains in their own country can therefore look north to their alpine province of Trentino Alto Adige, but the flatland Viennese look west, chiefly to their Tyrol (German: Tirol), the province corresponding to Austria's western tongue.  The Tyrol is small: less than 5,000 square miles, with a population of about 600,000.  Along with neighboring bits of the provinces of  Salzburg and Carinthia, however,  it's spectacular, not only with tremendously rugged alpine peaks but with homes, pastures, and livestock that unusually humanize an otherwise stark landscape.  Economically, these farms make no sense, but like many Europeans the Austrians are determined to preserve their traditional countryside, even if doing so requires agricultural subsidies.