Bern

Bern's account of its own name doesn't quite hold together, and the city seems fine with that. Legend says a duke vowed to name his town after the first creature he saw on a hunt – a bear, and bears have turned up on fountains and flags ever since. Hydrologists prefer a duller theory: an old Celtic word for gorge. Nobody's settled it, and nobody's in a hurry to.

The same shrug runs through its politics. Switzerland's 1848 constitution never named a capital, a deliberate choice to keep power from pooling in one city. Bern became the federal seat instead, officially the Bundesstadt, and locals will tell you, mildly, that this isn't quite the same thing.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours take in the sights that earn the title anyway – the Bundeshaus dome, the Zytglogge's hourly parade of bears and jesters – and the parts no title covers. Follow the Aare to where locals jump off the Altenbergsteg and float downstream, or listen for Matteänglisch, the backwards slang Matte kids still speak.

Bern was never built to be admired from a distance. Step in, and let it carry you.