Did you know that the 225 residents of Bivio, canton of Graubünden, speak seven languages and dialects?

In the village of Bivio, canton of Graubünden, three languages have been spoken since the Middle Ages. In addition to the official language, Italian, most residents speak German and Romansch. Since the spoken German – just as the Italian – breaks up into several local varieties (i.e. standard German, “Bündnerdeutsch” and Zurich German) linguists have counted up to seven dialects.

The highest-lying settlement in Europe is called Juf - a village inhabited throughout the year and found in Switzerland. Situated at a height of 2,126m, it is part of the Avers valley community in the canton of Graubunden. Six families live in the village, giving it a total population of 24. The Italian village of Le Baite, near Trepalle, has also claimed the title of Europe's highest village but most evidence still supports Juf's claim.

The Salzburg Festival is one of the world's largest music and drama festivals. The five-week festival has been staged every year since 1920, with Salzburg's baroque architecture providing an ideal setting for some of the finest cultural treats the planet has to offer. Every year the Salzburg Festival attracts the world's best conductors, directors, singers, actors and musicians who come to celebrate the legacy of the founder Hugo von Hofmannsthal who devised the festival to show "drama in its best and strongest sense". Since 2000, works in the Salzburg Festival have been the most common winners of the Nestroy Prize for drama.

The Sachertorte is Vienna's most famous culinary specialty. First devised in 1832, the original Sachertorte is probably the world's most famous chocolate cake and its recipe is a well guarded secret. Made of two layers of chocolate cake separated by apricot jam, it is covered with a thick, dark chocolate icing. The cake's creator Franz Sacher was a 16-year-old apprentice chef at the court of Count Metternich when he had his eureka moment. In 1876 his son Eduard Sacher opened the first Sacher restaurant and hotel. The original Sachertorte is only available at Hotel Sacher Wien, Hotel Sacher Salzburg, Café Sacher Innsbruck, Café Sacher Graz and at the Sacher shops in Bozen and at Vienna airport.

The Semmeringbahn was the first mountain railway in Europe built with a standard gauge track. Designed by Karl Ritter von Ghega and opened in 1854, the Semmeringbahn cuts through mountains and passes over gorges and can truly be called a marvel of aesthetics and engineering. Part of the Südbahn railway that runs from Gloggnitz via Semmering Pass to Mürzzuschlag, the Semmeringbahn is 4km long and encompasses a drop of 459m along its course. Trains passing over the line chug through a series of tunnels and graceful stone viaducts. The Semmeringbahn was listed as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1998.

That the Tiergarten Schönbrunn - Vienna Zoo - is the world’s oldest zoo. Sited in the grounds of Schönbrunn palace, it was founded as an imperial menagerie at the suggestion of Emperor Franz I in 1752. The centrepiece of the park was a pavilion around which 13 animal enclosures were arranged. The zoo was opened to the public in 1779. After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the zoo fell into the hands of the new Austrian Republic before being privatised in 1992. Since then plenty of new attractions have been added to the zoo including the tropical house, the desert house and the Tyrolean farm. The zoo is also home to rare animals such as koalas and pandas.

The Geneva-based World Economic Forum said that Switzerland was the most competitive of the top 125 world economic powers in a 2006 survey – and also praised Switzerland's capacity for innovation and its sophisticated business culture. The United States took sixth place and the UK tenth in the rankings. Switzerland generally seems to do well in opinion polls and surveys, as it also did in 2005 when it took eighth place in the World Competition Yearbook rankings. At that time, the US occupied the top position and the UK the 22nd.

Acclaimed Swiss film director Marc Forster has agreed to bring James Bond's next adventure to the big screen. Forster will direct the as-yet-unnamed film from a script which he will develop in collaboration with Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis, that stems from a draft by previous Bond collaborators. Forster is the son of a Swiss doctor and German architect, who was born in Germany in 1969 and grew up in Davos - in the east of Switzerland.

The Neusiedler See is one of Europe’s few steppe lakes - lakes which have no rivers flowing in or out. Straddling the border between with Hungary, the Neusiedler See is Austria’s largest lake covering 315km squared, 240km squared of which are in Austria. Mostly very shallow and largely surrounded by reed beds, the area enjoys a mild climate. The Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park was founded in 1993 and comprises the lake’s eastern and southern shores. The 300km squared nature reserve is Austria’s first cross-border national park and is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Switzerland may be famous for watchmaking and banking, but the nation also has an impressive record in science, boasting 27 Nobel prize winners. Winterthur-born Richard Ernst won the 1991 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, while other notable recent achievements saw St. Gallen-born Heinrich Rohrer share the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physics while Riehen's Rolf Zinkernagel was a joint recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. In total, 113 Nobel prize winners have some connection with Switzerland, not least among them Albert Einstein, who was born in Germany but completed his schooling in Switzerland, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize for Physics.