Bamberg, Germany: UNESCO World Heritage old town, Little Venice and the Franconian Rome

Spread across seven hills above a branch of the Regnitz river, Bamberg earned the nickname "Franconian Rome" for the way its churches and palaces crown the high ground much as basilicas do in the Italian capital. This Upper Franconian city of around 77,000 people holds one of the largest intact historic centres in Germany, with more than 1,300 listed buildings, and its old town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1993.

The heart of the ensemble is the island town, where the Altes Rathaus, the old town hall, stands midstream on its own tiny island, reached by bridges and covered in vivid frescoes. Below it, a row of former fishermen's cottages along the water has long been called Klein-Venedig, or Little Venice.

A thousand years of emperors and prince-bishops

Bamberg's rise began in 1007, when Emperor Henry II made it the seat of a new bishopric and a centre of imperial power intended to rival the great cities of the age. The four-towered Cathedral, a meeting of Romanesque and early Gothic, holds the tomb of Henry II and his wife Kunigunde - both later canonised - along with the enigmatic equestrian statue known as the Bamberg Horseman. Around the Domplatz rise the medieval Alte Hofhaltung and the baroque Neue Residenz, and the abbey of St. Michael looks down from its own hill. For nearly eight centuries prince-bishops governed the city, and their patronage left the dense layering of styles that UNESCO recognised.

Across the hills, glass in hand

The three historic quarters reward unhurried walking: the cathedral hill (Bergstadt), the merchants' island town, and the Gärtnerstadt of market gardeners whose plots still survive within the city. Bamberg is also a capital of beer, famous for the dark, smoky Rauchbier poured at historic breweries such as Schlenkerla, in operation since the sixteenth century. Sitting roughly 60 kilometres north of Nuremberg with fast rail links, the city serves as an unhurried base for exploring Upper Franconia.