Smoking does have its advantages. This opulent villa was financed by smokers - it was built by Carl Fürchtegott Grob who made his huge fortune with tobacco plantations in South-East Asia. For his home in Zurich he hired architects Chiodera and Tschudy in the 1880s and provided them with an almost infinite budget. The result was a magnificent villa with an explosion of styles - Baroque, Gothic and Italian Renaissance blend organically with ornamental elements from East Asia. After long years of neglect, the villa has been painstakingly restored and is now home of the Swiss Heritage Society (www.heimatschutzzentrum.ch) and partly open to the public, as is the English landscape garden surrounding it. Pick up one of the wooden chairs, find a sunny spot and enjoy a moment of bliss - you could even have a smoke.
