12/09/2020
When we left Tuscany at this time last year, we’d been there almost a month, staying in a flat in Greve in Chianti above a butcher shop and cafe—next door to a wine shop where you could refill your glass jugs and across the way from the local pizza spot and bakery. We loved the romance and the warmth of our world in that tiny Italian city square and we would have stayed—but our visa was ending and the adventures were calling.
We drop our rental car in Milan, get on a train, and make our way to Zurich. The night is dark and cold as skiers board, their gear covered in snow. We’ve never experienced a Christmas market, but we step off the platform and into a train station wonderland of roasting chestnuts and dripping fondue.
A quick trip takes us to Park Hyatt Zürich and a dazzling display of holiday decor and greenery. For dinner, we dine at parkhuus—where the artisans are at work in the open kitchen with its wood-burning stove. The menu combines tastes of the area’s forests, fields, and lakes; we have pike-perch fillet, crayfish, venison, creamy pumpkin soup, and a wine called Zweigelt, which is bright and fruity.
And in the morning, there’s a breakfast buffet of fresh pastries and bread. As we walk around the city that afternoon, it starts to snow, and we discover a safe haven at an outdoor Christmas market with its hot mulled wine and its warm twinkling lights. Zurich, we find, is modernly ethereal—a synchronicity between the past and present.
• Park Hyatt • Zurich, Switzerland
