When it comes to appreciating art, there is no doubt that travel is something that goes hand in hand with the aesthetics and language of the medium. If you want to understand da Vinci, it’s best to spend some time in Florence and Milan where he did his most significant work. If you’re beguiled by the work of Monet, then no trip to Giverny, Rouen, and the rest of Northern France will be a wasted one. Any holiday, in truth, can become an art appreciation tour if you visit galleries while there.

With that said, there are some places in the world where you can get more of a feel for the great artists than others. This is especially the case if you pick somewhere that is filled with the history and architecture of the great artistic eras, and in this regard, a tour along the Danube is something that most art appreciators will find to be very much in their interest. Not only has the river itself been depicted time and again by skilled artists, it’s actually been the home to an entire tradition of art - the Danube School or Donauschule, which changed how landscapes are painted. Along with this, it flows through no fewer than four European capitals with a substantial artistic pedigree.

Vienna

The wonders of Vienna will not be lost on any visitor to the city; it’s been remarked that the scenery here is enough to make anyone want to pick up a paintbrush and depict its beauty. The capital of Austria certainly doesn’t lack artistic pedigree; the highly influential Vienna Secession movement was founded here in 1897 and included luminaries such as Gustav Klimt. It is also the city that is perhaps most connected in the minds of people with the Danube itself, and there’s perhaps some reason for that - the views of and from the river are genuinely astonishing.

Modern artists including Genaro Strobel have also found exceptional inspiration here, and it’s not hard to see why. Any stop here will not be complete without a visit to the city’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, the Museum of the History of Art, which addresses both Austrian and global art movements.

Bratislava

The capital of Slovakia, and a very short hop away from the borders with Austria, Czechia and Hungary, Bratislava is a perfect place for a digital nomad to base themselves. For one thing, it’s one of Europe’s more affordable cities, and food, drink and onward travel are all well-priced. Equally, entry to some of the most unmissable art galleries in Eastern Europe including the Danubiana is extremely affordable. The troubled but brilliant sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt spent the last six years of his too-short life here, working on his noted “character heads”.

Belgrade

If you wanted to depict the phrase “austerely beautiful” in pictures, you could get enough source material in a single hour in the Serbian capital. It’s one of Europe’s oldest cities, and any single century of its lifetime has contained enough history for most nations. There’s a certain sadness to Belgrade, and perhaps that has driven the artistic impulses of names such as Đura Jakšić and Nadežda Petrović. Jakšić in particular is remembered fondly here, and his statue adorns the Skadarlija quarter of the city, while examples of his art are to be found all around Belgrade.

Budapest

If there is a challenger to Vienna for the most visually stunning capital in Europe, then Budapest would have to be the one. Divided into two parts, Buda and Pest, the Hungarian capital is exceptionally pretty just to walk around. In doing so, you’ll find some wonderful examples of the street art of Budapest, particularly in the Jewish Quarter, and the Hungarian National Gallery, which is itself a strikingly beautiful building. The division between the two parts of the city offers an intriguing aesthetic through which to experience Budapest, and crossing from one into the other means crossing the Danube by means of the spectacular Széchenyi Chain Bridge.