The Belvedere reflecting pool

The Upper Belvedere was built as a summer palace for Prince Eugene on the rise south of the old city, and two pieces of water frame it. On the south side, between the palace and the Gürtel gate, a wide pool doubles the whole façade on a still morning — the shot on every Vienna poster, and it costs nothing. On the garden side to the north, the baroque parterre steps down through cascades and clipped hedges to the Lower Belvedere, with St Stephen's spire and the city behind it: the view Canaletto painted.

The gardens open early, from about 6:30 in summer and an hour or so later in winter, and are free; the museums inside both palaces are ticketed and only open at ten. Before nine the paths are empty apart from joggers; from ten the tour groups arrive at the south pool, and the reflection is only as good as the wind allows — check the forecast for a calm morning.

The south façade faces the sun, so it is lit from the front for most of the day, and the pool is calmest at dawn. The north garden is in shade in the morning and warms in the afternoon, when the Lower Belvedere and the city beyond take the low light.

Winter is the Belvedere's season: snow on the parterre turns the hedges into graphic black lines and the palace into a cut-out, and January is the likeliest month for it. The Belvedere's own rules on tripods and larger productions apply in the gardens — check them before booking anything that looks like a shoot.