Actually, I like very much the northern countries, just like Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, etc, the same about the womderful Scandinavian countries like Norway, Denmark or also Iceland...that's probably because those are countries were things ( services, means of transportation, offices and so on...) really function, while in Italy things are a bit different...maybe you do know that jest about the man going to hell that is allowed to choose if he wants to enter the hell run by Italians or the ones run by others, and as he asks where the difference is, he is told that the hell run by Italians is better for the souls who have to suffer as in there one day the torturer is off duty, another day the flames don't function, another one the machines giving pains are out of order, another time there is a strike of the guardians, and so it continues...
But, jesting apart and speaking about Austria, well, it's a very beautiful country( where everything really function well...) as the western part (Voralberg and Tirol are alpine regions) appears to be always very snowy until April, while they are sunny and warm in July and August...on the other hand, other regions as Styria, Carinthia and the area of Wien and so on are mostly plains, but they are beautiful indeed...there you can still find, late in the afternoon, the good custom of a wondrous cake and a coffe in a luxury pastry shop, that is something similar to a tea room in the British Isles, a sort of tradition you could have enjoyed in cities like old Turin or Trieste in Italy at the end of 19th century in a way...
Wien , anyway, has got so many beautiful/ancient palaces to see that you need more than one visit ( of many days...)over the course of the years to have a look at all of them...
Then, there are some wonderful resort like Sankt Anton in Arlberg ( a paradise for the ones who love skiing..) that is as famous as (Swiss) Sankt Moritz, but less and less expensive of course....
.It's a sort of Jackson Hole in the U.S.A. or Whistler in British Columbia, to make you better understand, according to American standards...
Other than that, also towns like Salzburg ( the town of Mozart..), Innsbruck and Klagenfurt are worth more than a single visit, there's too much to see there, too...
If you just need some explanation more about some specific area of Austria, just let me know, as I've visited almost all of it over the course of the years, also the border of Austria/Hungary (that was once within the boundaries of the same Empire...the same was for part of northern Italy - as Milan, Trieste, Venice and so on were included in that Empire in 18th- 19th century) apart some small villages around...