There’s no doubt that what Mozart achieved as a composer is remarkable: that he did so much of it on the road is extraordinary. Salzburg WHAT TO SEE The hugely popular Mozarts Geburtshaus (birthplace) is on one floor of this narrow terrace and houses a museum of the composer’s early life. WHAT TO HEAR The ‘Mozart Dinner Concert’ is performed in historic costume at 8pm each evening at the Stiftskeller St Peter restaurant, accompanied by a three-course dinner. His Don Giovanni and Clemenza di Tito were both commissioned for the National Theatre, and he visited the city three times, always delighted with the reception he received. After two more trips to Italy, a 14-month round trip to Paris, Mozart achieved his ambition of moving to the Vienna of Joseph II, the centre of music-making in the German-speaking world. Vienna became his home, especially after his marriage to Constanze Weber in 1782. His travels thereafter were less scattershot: a trip to Berlin in the company of Prince Karl Lichnowsky where he managed to secure 12 commissions and wrote to Constanze from the Tiergarten: “I lunched in an inn in the park all by myself in order to devote myself wholly to you.” Towards the end of his brief life, Prague became very important for Mozart.

“I really like Venice,” wrote the excitable young Mozart to his mother. All this travelling was expensive, especially as Leopold was determined to make a good impression among would-be patrons. He hired carriages and ensured that father and son were turned out well enough to dine with aristocrats and royalty. Commissions and concerts financed their travels and Leopold frequently wrote home that the whole publicity tour was proving too costly. When the family reached Amsterdam there was nearly a nasty moment when it was discovered that all public concerts were prohibited during Lent.

Fortunately, a dispensation was made for Mozart because the city fathers judged that this “wonder” “served God’s praise”. The money was greatly needed as Leopold had to buy the pair of them new coats. Amsterdam was freezing and the family’s furs had been sent ahead to Paris Lost luggage was a problem then as now Inevitably word got around about the boy Mozart. Passing through Lausanne in 1766, Leopold was met by servants of Prince Ludwig von Wurttemberg who asked them to give a concert.

In the event, Mozart gave two concerts and was commissioned to write three flute solos for the prince. Unfortunately, like many of the pieces he wrote on the road, these were lost in transit. When he wasn’t composing, Mozart occupied himself learning the languages of places they passed through. He came back from his travels with a staggering total of 15 under his belt. For a month father and son mingled with the masquers who thronged St Mark’s Square at night. The Mozarts had the good fortune to arrive in Venice during Carnival. After hearing Allegri’s nine-part Miserere, the 14-year-old transcribed the piece from memory.

By law he should have been excommunicated for breaching the Vatican’s copyright rules but instead Pope Clement awarded Mozart the Order of the Golden Spur. In Bologna, they visited the celebrated castrato Farinelli on his estate. In Florence, Mozart wrote home that he was suffering travel fatigue because he had seen “everything there is to see”, but in Rome he was delighted by his visit to the Sistine Chapel. After a brief return to Salzburg – just long enough to placate the archbishop, who must have been wondering where his court organist had got to – Mozart and his father were off again, first to Vienna and then, in 1769, on their first Italian trip, which lasted 14 months.