Anyone booking a house hunting holiday in the Alps this year may want to make sure their Italy property isn’t actually in neighbouring Switzerland.

Skiing enthusiasts could fall asleep in Italy property but wake up in Switzerland, following the Government’s announcement that the country has expanded into the Italian Alps due to the melting of glaciers high on some mountaintops.

However, topographer Daniel Gutknecht told the Associated Press that the country has only become "a little bit" larger and that he and his fellow map-makers "won’t be correcting the atlas" just yet.

The Italian Government has reportedly already approved the move, which was discovered when researchers from the Swiss Federal Office of Topography realised the watershed used to determine the former border in 1942 had moved.

The 150 metre shift means that the final stop of the Furggsattel Sesselbahn ski station, near Matterhorn peak, has now moved from Italy property to Swiss territory, according to the news source.

The Italian Alps could provide the perfect backdrop for those seeking Italy property with mountain views and world-beating, year-round snow sports facilities close at hand.

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