While Geneva’s watchmaking legacy is unmatched, I couldn’t resist asking the Travel Office to arrange a tour focusing on another famous Swiss specialty: chocolate. Over the course of three hours, my lucky companion and I experienced an extraordinary array of sinful treats. We sipped rich hot cocoa on the Promenade du Lac Léman and crossed the Rhône by boat to the Old Town to wander from one master chocolatier to the next. As we indulged, our guide wove in anecdotes about the city’s history and chocolate-making traditions.

At one stop, a light and fluffy chocolate-and-caramel éclair stole the show, and I loved the unusual truffles — one filled with dark chocolate and lime and one with milk chocolate and verbena — at a newer chocolatier in town. Many of the shops we visited are unique to Geneva and don’t ship abroad, so we stocked up during the tour, which sometimes included a discount thanks to our guide.

We also had the chance to smash a marmite de l’Escalade, a chocolate cauldron overflowing with marzipan “vegetables” and candies. This playful tradition honors the city’s victory over Savoyard invaders in the early 1600s, when (according to legend) a local woman named Catherine Cheynel poured a pot of boiling vegetable soup from her window onto the attackers. Custom calls for the youngest and oldest members of a household to break it together while shouting “Ainsi périrent les ennemis de la République!” (“thus perished the enemies of the Republic!”). Taking part in this messy and utterly delicious ritual, normally reserved for the Fête de l’Escalade in December, was pure fun.