Appenzell, Switzerland

Appenzell has a quaint, traditional air. The main street is car-free Hauptgasse, running from a bridge over the River Sitter at the entrance to the village west for 300m or so to the broad, open Landsgemeindeplatz; it's worth wandering along to admire the intricately painted old wooden houses – notably Löwen Drogerie, a pharmacy at no. 20 – with their rows of small, closely packed windows. During the nineteenth century, the embroidery industry of nearby St Gallen relied upon thousands of women working by hand from home, with the intricate work of Appenzell particularly highly prized: the upstairs rooms in these buildings, flooded by daylight through the lines of windows, were used as workshops. Hand-embroidery flourished into the first half of the twentieth century, and is still carried on by a few specialists here and there, with workshops often located on characterful back alleys.