France–Italy border


The France–Italy border is 515 km long. It runs from the Alps in the north, a region in which it passes over Mont Blanc, down to the Mediterranean coast in the south. Three national parks are located along the border: Vanoise National Park and Mercantour National Park on the French side and Gran Paradiso National Park on the Italian side.

Features

The France–Italy border is mainly mountainous. It is long, in southeast France and northwest Italy. It begins at the west tripoint of France–Italy–Switzerland near the top of Mont Dolent, in the French commune of Chamonix, the Italian city of Courmayeur and the Swiss commune of Orsières.
The boundary then follows a general direction towards south, to the Mediterranean, it reaches the sea at Menton in France and Ventimiglia in Italy. The border separates three regions and four provinces of Italy from two regions and five departments of France.

Border crossings

Road

The paved road crossings between the two countries from north to south are:
In 1999, there was a large fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel after a truck crashed into other vehicles. Emergency personnel from both sides of the border tried their best to intervene but 39 people died. The tunnel was closed for nearly three years following the fire.

Rail

The following railway lines and services cross the border :
The border between the two countries dates back to that separating the Kingdom of Sardinia and France during the 19th century. In 1860, the Treaty of Turin links the Savoy and County of Nice to France; the border between the French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia was surveyed the following year.
At the conclusion of the Battle of France in World War II, Italy claimed and administered French territory under the terms of the armistice of 24 June 1940 which were extended from 11 November 1942. The Germans occupied the Italian zone from 1943, and the territory was finally liberated by France in 1944. The border was then changed by the Treaty of Paris in 1947, when France acquired Tende, La Brigue, Mont Chaberton and the Lake of Mont Cenis.
In the 21st century, an ongoing issue to be resolved concerns the demarcation of the border at the top of Mont Blanc.