PACKED into a country as small as Switzerland, is an incredible variety of landscapes.
In the balmy south of Italian-speaking Ticino, you can get a tan under palm trees on a sandy beach. A short drive away is the eternal snow-cap of the Alps.
In between, there are alpine meadows where Heidi can be imagined with her cows and low-land villages offering splendid cuisine and crafts.
Switzerland's landscape can be categorised into three types.
About 60 per cent lies in the Alps. About one-fifth of this European mountain range - which stretches from the French Mediterranean coast through to Austria, Italy and Yugoslavia - is in Swiss territory.
As well as jagged peaks such as the Jungfrau, the Swiss landscape is marked by large glaciers and enormous ice fields.