The cable car climbs to the Schilthorn in stages from Lauterbrunnen, and the summit restaurant. Piz Gloria, the old Bond set. Turns slowly through a full circle in an hour. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau line up across the valley; the Thrill Walk runs out along the cliff face below.

Up from Montreux through Gstaad to Glacier 3000, where the Peak Walk strings a footbridge between two summits at three thousand metres. On a clear day you pick out Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn and the Eiger from the one deck; the alpine coaster runs the ridge on the way down.

Zermatt is car-free, so the walk up was only the hum of electric taxis. We rode to the Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, the highest cable-car station in Europe, and the cloud lifted off the peak just long enough for the photograph everyone climbs up for. That perfect crooked pyramid.

After a week of mountains, Milan. The hop-on tour ended at the Duomo and we went up onto the roof terraces among the marble spires and statues, the city spread out below and the Alps a thin white line back the way we had come. The Galleria for an aperitivo after.