Campione d'Italia

Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Lombardy, surrounded by the Swiss region of Ticino.

Understand
Campione d'Italia was founded by the Romans in the 1st century BCE as Campilonum. Later on in the late 18th century, when Ticino chose to join Switzerland, Campione chose instead to remain in Lombardy - leading to the existence of the exclave. In the 1930s, the "d'Italia" was added to the end of the town's name by Benito Mussolini, along with building an ornate gate at its entrance, to assert its Italian-ness.

Nowadays, even though the town is Italian, it has considerable integration with Switzerland: the Swiss franc (Fr.) is legal tender, the town uses the Swiss phone and mail systems, and firefighters and ambulances are also Swiss. On January 1, 2020, Campione switched from the Swiss to the Italian customs territory and thus into the European customs union. While both countries belong to the Schengen zone, there may be customs controls.

Get in
From further afield, you may want to get into Lugano, or Milan, before heading into Campione, and then travel into the exclave with public transport, as both these cities have their own airports ( and ). From Lugano, see below for how to get there by bus or boat; and from Milan, you can get trains run by the SBB (Schweizerische Bundesbahnen) between Milan and nearby Melide, from where you can get the 439 bus into Campione.

By bus
Bus route NFB 439 (operated by Arcobaleno, tickets from Swiss Federal Railways) runs from nearby Lugano to its terminus at the casino in Campione, the whole journey taking about 20 minutes. One ticket for this journey costs around Fr. 3.

By car
The A2 road runs from Basel in the north, down to Chiasso in the south of Switzerland, passing near Campione. This is part of the E35 European road, running from Amsterdam to Rome. To get into Campione, use exit 51 near Melide, then follow signs for Campione.

By train
The nearby Swiss town of Melide has a train station, with trains run by TILO (the train company for Ticino and Lombardy) going in the directions of Bellinzona and Chiasso. From Melide, Campione is only a 10-minute bus ride, or around a 50-minute walk.

By boat
The Società Navigazione del Lago di Lugano runs boats and boat tours around Lake Lugano, and often stops at Campione d'Italia (and nearby Melide, which is a five minute bus journey away with the 439 bus). A boat journey takes about 20 minutes from Lugano to Campione.

Get around
Campione is only about 2 km long, and 1 km wide, so walking is probably the best way to get around, especially as the majority of the town is built along the shore. However, the slopes of the mountainside that Campione is on raises to about 600 m above sea level at its highest point — although there is little to see apart from trees and mountains at the top of the exclave.

See
The exclave is on the edge of Lake Lugano, so seeing the lake is a large attraction of the town. Across the lake, the mountains of San Salvatore and Monte Brè can be seen to the west and north respectively.

As well as the lake, within Campione, there are a few places which are worth seeing.

Buy
Despite being an Italian exclave, the sole legal tender in Campione is Swiss francs - the currency of Switzerland. It would be recommended to travel here with euros too, however, as they are also accepted in the exclave.

Campione doesn't have a particularly wide range of shopping opportunities, but it does feature some highlights, such as a and several minimarkets.

Sleep
With Campione being quite a small destination, there are few hotels within the exclave, but there are holiday lets, and there are some hotels just on the other side of the border. You will get a wider choice of accommodation if you stay in Lugano or Paradiso.

Connect
Telephone services in Campione are provided by Swisscom, the Swiss telephone operator - so use the +41 Swiss dialling code (although some places use the +39 Italian one).

Post can use both the Swiss postal code (CH-6911) and the Italian code (I-22060).

Go next

 * Lugano - Swiss town on the other side of the eponymous lake
 * Como - Italian town to the east, on the edge of another picturesque lake
 * Locarno - Swiss town on the edge of Lake Maggiore
 * Varese - Italian town near to, guess what, another Lake
 * Milan - famous Italian city, perfect for travellers who want to get away from the lakes in this region of the Alps