The key to enjoying Zurich is to choose a hotel that is centrally located in or right next to the Old Town. A simple one will do nicely, though there are several swank and wonderful places to stay if a splurge is in order. Then revel in the fact that every type of urban pleasure the world has to offer is close by. Forget about fondue and yodeling - the food here is diverse and delicious, and the music scene is raucous, not pastoral, catering to the 24,000 university students who give Zurich its youthful flair. Even the Zoo Zürich is unconventional. Imaginative zookeepers have re-created a Masoala rain forest inside a domed building constructed in what was an empty pasture adjacent to the rest of the zoo, giving visitors a chance to experience the heat, vegetation, humidity, and wildlife of an actual rain forest. I found it exhilarating to step across the threshold and into a completely different environment, one in which I was able to see and hear and breathe the tropics while at the edge of the Alps. The moisture in the air was intoxicating. The waterfalls, the exuberant plants, and the sight of the lizards and birds transported me to a faraway place. And the rain forest restaurant - with a giant plate-glass window offering a Garden of Eden-like view of a tropical paradise - is, without a doubt, the most beautiful zoo restaurant I've ever seen.

My favorite part of town is the oldest part of the Old Town, where some of the buildings date back to the fourteenth century. It is a pleasure to see how cities were formed back then, around town squares and clock towers that must have seemed huge at the time but that by today's standards seem positively petite. Chain stores and international luxury houses have not yet discovered this part of town. It's a pedestrian zone filled with one-of-a-kind jewelry shops and galleries. The Old Town is the place to buy beautiful music boxes and lovely­ umbrellas printed with scenes from Renoir paintings, evoking the era of the impressionists.