A cake from which one slice was cut for Austria's Empress Elisabeth must be one of the most unusual museum items anywhere. It's gone on display this week at a Tyrolean castle she once used as a holiday residence.
The Empress, known as Sissi, stopped at an inn near Merano, on the way to Schloss Trauttmansdorff, and was served the treat by the innkeeper. Sissi was known for her obsession with her slim figure, ate only a tiny sliver, and the rest was placed in a glass container and passed through the innkeeper's family for generations.
In the years since, the Austro-Hungarian Empire came to an end, Merano became part of Italy, the castle became a museum, and, in the words of a museum spokesperson, the cake became "hard as wood."
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