Part One: Chapter VII, A Festival Summer and a Baby Summary and Analysis

Salzburg is the world center for music festivals during summer, Maria explains. She provides a brief history of the city and tells how it traces back to the Romans and became Christian in the fifth century. Saint Rupertus and his monks built the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Peter. He commissioned his niece, Saint Erentrudis, to build the abbey in Nonnberg. Salzburg developed around these two structures. The older town structures remained, resulting in a mix of Romanesque and Gothic churches, Renaissance palaces, and Baroque chapels, which stand side by side.

Famous musicians, including Toscanini, Richard Strauss, Lotte Lehman, and Bruno Walter perform at these festivals. Tourists crowd in, and it is impossible to find a room without reservations. Georg receives letters from long-lost...