The Innere Stadt is the whole of imperial Vienna folded into a square kilometre, and this is the short loop that proves it. Two and a half kilometres around the medieval core — the cathedral, the plague column, the palace gate, and a baroque church you'll have to yourself.
Start under the Stephansdom before the tour groups arrive; the cathedral is the city's compass, and its tiled roof is the first thing everyone draws. West onto the Graben, the old moat turned pedestrian boulevard, with the Pestsäule boiling up in its centre. Slip aside to the Peterskirche — green dome, gilt interior, often empty.
Then the Kohlmarkt, the short run of shopfronts that points dead at the Hofburg's dome, and into Michaelerplatz, where Roman ruins, an imperial gate and a stark Loos facade share one paved circle. Read the centuries off the stones.
Loop back along the Kärntner Straße to where you began. Sit for a Melange before the U-Bahn — you've walked a thousand years before lunch.
