The Campione d'Italia reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Campione d'Italia

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Campione 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 its 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 (also known as Campione d'Italia), 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 dialling 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

However, 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-WWII era).

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