On January 1, 2020, the apparently Swiss but actually Italian town of Campione d’Italia officially joined the European Union. Of course, as a part of Italy, it was already in the EU, but since it is located inside Switzerland, everyone has acted as if it weren’t.
The town, whose population is just under 2,000, has relied on Swiss phone systems, Swiss hospitals, and even had its own Swiss postal code as well as an Italian one. Same goes for public utilities. Much of that will now change for the town that is 1 km by air from the nearest village in Italy but 14 km by twisting mountain roads.
Confusing? Read on!
This is a tale with roots deep in feudal days, in 777, when a Lombard lord named Toto (no, not in Kansas) left his lands to the church, which assigned them to an Italian abbey. In 1512, the surrounding area of Ticino was given to Switzerland as thanks for taking his side in a war, but the abbey held on to its territory, and the town remained part of Lombardy.
In 1814, residents rejected a proposal to become Swiss; then in 1848 during the wars of Italian unification, they demanded to become Swiss, but the Swiss said no because they did not want to take sides. In the 20th century, Mussolini added the “d’Italia” to the name, but lost control of the territory during World War II, and Switzerland tacitly allowed Allied spies to operate there.
Its new status comes with a double whammy. Aside from losing some, but not all of its Swiss services, it may lose its exemption from EU VAT—and it may lose any chance of re-opening its casino, once the largest in Europe. It operated from 1918 until its bankruptcy in 2018, and it made so much money the town’s residents paid no taxes at all.
