Berne, Switzerland

Bern (Berne in French), the capital of Switzerland, is tiny city with a population of about 130,000 in the city proper and roughly 350,000 in the agglomeration area.

Of all Swiss ties, Bern is perhaps the most charming. Crammed onto a steep-sided peninsula in a crook of the fast-flowing River Aare, its quiet, cobbled lanes, lined with sandstone arcaded buildings straddling the pavement, have changed barely at all in over five hundred years but for the adornment of modern shop signs and the odd car or tram rattling past. The hills all around, and the steep banks of the river, are still liberally wooded. Views, both of the Old Town’s clustered roofs and of the majestic Alps on the horizon, are breathtaking. The remarkable design coherence of the Berne's old town has earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Such a charming city, it is no doubt that Bern was once voted Europe’s most floral city – is the nation’s capital, home of the Swiss parliament and wielder of final federal authority.

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