Corippo lies in the Verzasca valley about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) from Locarno at the north end of the reservoir Lake Vogorno, and 20 km from the border with Italy. The houses are built from the local Ticino granite with slate roofs and have changed little for several hundred years, leading the Italian writer Piero Bianconi to describe Corippo as "Verzasca's gentlest village".