Switzerland (German: die Schweiz[8] French: la Suisse, Italian: la Svizzera, Romansh: la Svizra), officially the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin, hence its ISO country codes CH and CHE), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe[9] where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.