THE HAMLET HOTEL

An entire Swiss village that’s slowly being turned into a hotel has opened its doors for business.

Corippo, a hamlet with stone houses, narrow alleys and mountain vistas in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, once had 300 residents. But last year it had only 13 and the mayor had resigned.

So a foundation called Corippo 75 launched a tourist redevelopment project, with the aim of turning the entire place into one big, “scattered” hotel.

The first villa, called Casa Arcotti, is now open for booking, at 128 CHF (about R1,900) per night.

● See verzascarustici.ch