Campione (also known as Campione d'Italia) is an Italian enclave within the Swiss canton of Ticino, separated from the rest of Italy by Lake Lugano and mountains. Its status came about when Ticino chose to become part of the Swiss Confederation in 1798, and Campione's people chose to remain part of Lombardy, which subsequently became part of Italy in 1871. The d'Italia was added to the appelation under Mussolini, who was keen to showcase Campione to its neighbours.

Campione has a considerable amount of economic and administrative integration with Switzerland, using the Swiss Franc, and benefitting of special customs arrangements to allow Italian citizens to cross Swiss territory. Similarly, the telephone system is Swiss, meaning that calls require the international dialing code for Switzerland, e.g: 00 41 91 from Italy. Mail may be sent using either a Swiss postal code:

 via Volta 3 CH-6911 Campione d'Italia 

or an Italian one:

 via Volta 3 I-22060 Campione d'Italia 

Campione takes advantage of its status by operating a famous casino, as gambling laws are less strict than in both Italy and Switzerland (also a legacy of the pre-World War II era).

Campione d'Italia is unique among the world's enclaves in that in one direction the territory that separates it from the main territory of its country is a lake. That is, one can go from Campione to the contiguous territory of Italy by crossing Lake Lugano without ever crossing Swiss land, although the lake itself is Swiss territory. One other European enclave, Büsingen (a German enclave surrounded by Swiss territory), has a somewhat similar situation, since it lies on the Rhine which provides it with a navigable water route to the contiguous portion of Germany.

External links

• Campione d'Italia (http://www.campioneitalia.com/english/english.html)

• The Border of Campione d'Italia (http://campione.enclaves.org/)