The next morning led us underground, into the glittering depths of the Salzburg Salt Mine near Hallstatt — the oldest operational salt mine in the world, with records tracing back over 7,000 years. This “white gold” financed the rise of the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, a powerful ecclesiastical dynasty that shaped Central Europe for centuries. The wealth from these mines built Salzburg’s magnificent cathedrals and palaces, laying the foundations for the baroque city that would later inspire Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose music bridged Old World Europe and the early cultural life of America.

Inside the mine, dressed in white overalls, we rode narrow trains through tunnels once walked by medieval laborers. Slides carried us deeper underground, where an illuminated salt lake shimmered in silence. It’s humbling to realize that the prosperity of this one mountain helped shape Europe’s empires — the same empires from which many early American settlers sought independence. The story of Salzburg’s salt is, in a way, a story of how intertwined the Old and New Worlds remain.