Röttingen bills itself as the first town on the Romantic Road, and it is a charming introduction. This small wine village in the Tauber valley still has its medieval city walls largely intact, and the centre is a pleasant jumble of half-timbered houses around a baroque town hall. Above them, Burg Brattenstein looks down from the ridge and turns into an open-air theatre every summer.
The town is surrounded by vineyards — Tauberfranken wines are less well known than those from the Rhine or Mosel, but the local Müller-Thurgau and Silvaner are worth trying. Röttingen also has a series of sundials scattered through its streets, part of an open-air sundial trail that makes for an unusual walk.