The Puritanism of GENEVA (Genève in French) is inextricably linked with the city's struggle for independence. Long ruled by the dukes of Savoy, who regarded the local bishopric as their private property, sixteenth-century Genevans saw the Reformation in neighbouring Switzerland as a useful aid in their struggle to rid themselves of Savoyard influence. By the time the city's independence was won in 1602, its religious zeal had painted it as the "Protestant Rome". What continues to be known today as the Republic and Canton of Geneva remained outside the Swiss Confederation until 1815 (the Catholic cantons opposed its entry), and acquired a reputation for joylessness which it still struggles to shake off. Today, it's a working city that remains sharply focused on its prominent role in international diplomacy and big business. Time and effort are needed to penetrate the facade of money and power.

Genevans orientate their city around the Rhône, which flows from the lake west into France. The Rive Gauche , on the south bank, takes in a grid of waterfront streets which comprise the main shopping and business districts and the adjacent high ground of the Old Town. Behind the grand hotels lining the northern Rive Droite waterfront is the main station and the cosmopolitan (and sometimes sleazy) Les Pâquis district, filled with cheap restaurants. Further north are the offices of the dozens of international organizations headquartered in Geneva, including the UN.

On the Rive Gauche, beyond the ornamental flowerbeds of the Jardin Anglais , erupts the roaring 140-metre-high plume of Geneva's trademark Jet d'Eau . Immediately beside Pont du Mont-Blanc, Île de Rousseau bears a seated statue of the eighteenth-century Genevan philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Three blocks downriver, the Pont de l'Île boasts a thirteenth-century tower, from where Rue de la Monnaie leads up to the main thoroughfare of the Old Town, the cobbled, steeply ascending Grande Rue . Here, among the secondhand bookshops and galleries, you'll find the atmospheric seventeenth-century Hôtel de Ville and the arcaded armoury , backed by a lovely terrace with the longest wooden bench in the world (126m). A few steps north is Maison Tavel , 6 Rue Puits-St-Pierre (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; free; mah.ville-ge.ch ), an old patrician house containing the town museum and an impressive model of Geneva circa 1850. A block away is the huge late-Romanesque Cathedral (Mon-Sat 9/10am-5/7pm, Sun 11am-5/7pm), with an incongruous eighteenth-century portal and a plain, soaring interior. The frescoes of the internal Chapelle des Maccabées, with their intricate floral patterns and lute-strumming angels, are modern versions of the faded fifteenth-century originals now in Geneva's main museum. Round the corner is the hub of the Old Town, Place du Bourg-de-Four , a picturesque split-level square perched on the hillside and ringed by cafés. Alleys wind down from here to the university park and its austere Wall of the Reformation (1909-17) alongside busy Place Neuve.

A few metres east of the Old Town is the gigantic Musée d'Art et d'Histoire , 2 Rue Charles Galland (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; free; mah.ville-ge.ch ). Upstairs are three stunning sculptures - a graceful Venus and Adonis by Canova and two powerful pieces by Rodin. The fine-art collection is crowned by Konrad Witz's famous altarpiece, made for the cathedral in 1444, showing Christ and the fishermen transposed onto Lake Geneva. Other highlights are by local artist Félix Vallotton; Cézanne, Renoir and Modigliani; and some striking blue Swiss landscapes by Bern-born Symbolist Ferdinand Hodler. The basement holds the massive archeological collection, including Egyptian mummies and Greek and Roman statuary. Nearby is the astonishing Collections Baur , 8 Rue Munier-Romilly (Tues-Sun 2-6pm; Sfr5), the country's premier collection of East Asian art, featuring luminescent yellow Yongzhang ceramics and spectacular porcelain and jade. Make time for MAMCO , a top-quality museum of modern and contemporary art housed in an old factory west of the Old Town at 10 Rue des Vieux-Grenadiers (Tues noon-9pm, Wed-Sun noon-6pm; Sfr9; mamco-ge.tripod.com ).

About 1km north of the station, opposite the UN complex on Avenue de la Paix, is the thought-provoking Musée International de la Croix-Rouge (Red Cross Museum; Mon & Wed-Sun 10am-5pm; Sfr10; www.micr.ch ; bus #8 or #F to Appia), which documents the origins, growth and achievements of the organization without resorting to self-congratulation. Carefully chosen audiovisual material combines with quietly dramatic exhibits - such as the 34 footprints in a tiny cell-space where a Red Cross delegate found 17 people crammed together - to leave a powerful impression.

Twenty minutes south of the centre by tram #12 lies the late-Baroque suburb of CAROUGE , built by the king of Sardinia in the eighteenth century as a separate town. Its low Italianate houses and leafy lanes are now largely occupied by fashion designers and small galleries, and the area's reputation as an outpost of tolerance and hedonism beyond Geneva's jurisdiction lives on in its numerous cafés and music bars. Carouge hosts a colourful market on Wednesdays and Saturdays; the flea market at Plainpalais, near Geneva's Old Town, is also worth a browse.