No matter what, no, the Bay Area is not the only place to work as a software engineer. Nor in my opinion is it even the best place to be. I will admit that it is the most popular and most publicized and so has some credibility and perks to match, but really, that is not what makes the work. I know nothing of the Switzerland market so I can't comment on that. But I can say the East coast of the US is doing well and getting better all the time, and the amount of creativity is awesome. Not to mention you have Austin, Seattle, NYC, Boston and many other places to choose from.
Good luck and don't let the SV hype get in your head, there is more to the world of Software Engineering then just Silicon Valley.