Summer in Innsbruck: Sitting in the Beautiful

You can sit almost anywhere in Innsbruck. Some people might even get creative in the process. Because: a good-humoured summer afternoon offers the relaxed strollers in Innsbruck's city centre many a welcome opportunity for relaxed "Niedahockn" and "Feinhabn". During the last weeks of summer I also went on a ramble through my little alpine town. On the trail of old and new places to sit. A summery walk protocol.

Because I usually approach the old town from the north, due to where I live, the first nice thing comes my way here at the Ottoburg: a sensual live jazz evening including a sundowner between five selected venues: every Tuesday and Friday from half past seven. In the early afternoon hours, however, I sometimes get a little further afield, to Farina, for example. The latest offshoot of the accomplished pizzaioli from Due Sicilie has reinvented the Neapolitan pizza wheel. The southern stone-baked flatbread is not only delicately arranged with vitello tonato or tuna fillet in a sesame crust. If you wish, the grappa can be served in the espresso rather than next to it. Dolce Vita with a shot in the Schanigarten, that's what summer tastes like.

In the Ursulinenpassage, the municipal music school opens its windows to the inner courtyard in summer. And plays the open-air areas of the Acropolis with its youngest talents. The Greek restaurant has been here for a long time, newer is the small outpost Mr. Gyros opposite. Where everyone always speaks Greek, you get a taste of holiday in a pita and shout ευχαριστώ as you leave. At the Acropolis itself, there's always ouzo to say goodbye and a Greek island platter of your choice beforehand. Plus farmer's salad and tzatziki, pita and feta, mythos and metaxa. Praise be to Dionysus, the Greeks can party!

The schnitzel at Steneck tastes just as real as it did when I ate my very first one here. Host Manfred has also been the same original since 1988. The beer garden is a trip back in time every time, only the huge chestnut tree is missing. Instead, every Radler is freshly mixed, the potato salad is homemade, the schnitzel is hand-beaten and everything is billed at honest student prices. Without a tree you can see the sky better, but the midday heat tends to drive me into the shade. That's what happened recently at the Glasmalerei, where you can only get the best garden seats by reservation. But then you sit under trees, enjoy cool shade and daily changing lunch menus.

And of course there are also the days when you don't want to opt for a FuZo espresso at Manni 's, nor for an Intermezzo Italiano at Sparkassenplatz. Not even the impressively luxurious 360° view high above Innsbruck. Days when the inclined Innsbruck flâneur finds himself at some point involuntarily at the Inn. With a favourite person by the hand and a litre bottle of Tyrolean beer (see: well-stocked SPAR refrigerated shelves) in his hand luggage. A promenade picnic here needs neither table nor reservation. Just spread out in the green meadow: listen to the birds, soak up the sun and refresh yourself directly from the bottle. You can sit pretty almost anywhere in Innsbruck.

Lea introduces you to more beautiful places to enjoy in her post about alpine breakfast and picnic on the mountain