lt’s not much of a problem finding scenes of devastating beauty in Switzerland. The clichés are all here: soaring peaks, tumbling waterfalls, sparkling lakes, quaint rural houses and, of course, cows grazing contentedly in their verdant Alpine meadown. Towns and cities offer picture-perfect medieval centres and colourful parades and festivals. Trains wind through the mountains and, to complete this tourist fairytale, everything runs, well, like clockwork.

Anytime

Getting in amongst it in the Alps-by train, funicular, cable car or postal bus, or on foot, skin, snowshoes or dog sled Relaxing in a centuries-old Roman spa Wine tasting inside a glacier atop Klein Matterhorn Rising above it in a hop-air balloon Following Lord Byron’s footsteps through Chateau Chillon Sleeping in the straw of a farmer’s empty bart in summer

Read Johanna Spyri’s Heidi-the classic children’s story of an orphan girl living in the Swiss Alps, and Anita Brookner’s Hotel du Lac-a novel centred on a group of out-of-season hotel guests around Lake Geneva

Listen to Appenzeller Echo-a traditional Swiss group, featuring yodeling and Alphorn, or Yello-groundbreaking’ 80s electronica

Watch Alain Tanner’s Messidor-an grim feminist road-movie (think Thelma-Louise with Alps) or Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours: Red-the story of a relationship between a model and a judge, set in Geneva

Eat rosti (fried, shredded potatoes) and chocolale

Drink Rivella (lactose-based soft drink) or absinthe (wormwood grows in the Val de Travers)

Rostigraben (literally ‘rosti trench’); refers to the cultural divide between German-and French-speaking Switzerland

Clocks; banks; coes; mountains; edelweiss; fondue; Swiss Army knives; Matterhorn; mercenaries

Diverse architecture (La Chaux-de-Fonds is Le Corbusier’s home town); Valais cow fights; snow golf

Walking around St Mortz Dorf is like gate-carshing an F Scott Fitzgerald dinner party-the Jazz Age improvising around the same old tune after all these years… Whether you enjoy this show of wealth could hinge on your reading habits. Fans of PG Wodehouse will find 3D versions of their favourite characters, but students of Das Kapital may be less than amused.