If you could travel through only one European country, which might you choose? Italy? France? Germany? How about a taste of three in one? That can only mean Switzerland!

Known as a summer and winter sports paradise , just one look at those glistening white 4000m-plus Alpine peaks and glittering lakes, Switzerland will make you fall in love with it's sheer beauty . Illustrious names evoke all the romance and glamorous drama of the mountain high life: Zermatt, St Moritz, Davos, Gstaad, the Jungfrau, Verbier and more.

Beyond the après-ski chic, edelweiss and Heidi lies a complex country of cohabiting cultures.

It not only has four languages (Swiss German, French, Italian and Romansch), but the cultural variety to match. You could be chomping on sausages over beer in an oom-pah-pah Stübli one day and pasta over a glass of merlot in a granite grotto the next.

Cities like Geneva (the most cosmopolitan), Zürich (the most outrageous), Basel and Lausanne heave with heady artistic activity and sometimes incendiary nightlife.

The grandeur of the finest churches, such as the cathedrals in Lausanne and Bern, contrasts with sparkling but lesser-known treasures like the frescoes of Müstair or the abbey complex of St Gallen (both World Heritage sites).

The list of enchanting towns is endless: from Lucerne with its covered bridge to Neuchâtel and its fountains; from Gruyères, with its cheese, to Grimentz and its traditional timber houses; from the graffiti-blazoned buildings of Engadine towns like Scuol and Zuoz.

Whether visiting the remotest Ticino villages or sampling the finest of Valais wines, you'll find Switzerland a chocolate box bursting with unexpected flavours.