Montesilvano () is a city and ''

comune A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

'' of the

province of Pescara The province of Pescara (; Abruzzese: ') is a province in the Abruzzo region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Pescara, which has a population of 119,483 inhabitants. As of 2017, it has a total population of 319,936 inhabitants over an area o ...

, in the

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...

region of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Abruzzo is often called Mare-Monti (Sea-Mountain) region. The name Montesilvano is apparently derived from the Latin which means "woody hill" ("woods" – ''silva'').

Geography

Montesilvano is located on the

Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Se ...

immediately north of

Pescara Pescara (; ; ) is the capital city of the province of Pescara, in the Abruzzo Regions of Italy, region of Italy. It is the most populated city in Abruzzo, with 118,657 (January 1, 2023) residents (and approximately 350,000 including the surround ...

, to which it is physically connected. It is divided into Montesilvano Marina and Montesilvano Colle. The first is a seaside resort; the second is the original medieval comune and citadel. Montesilvano is a two-hour drive from Rome and is close to Abruzzo Airport and Pescara Centrale railway station. The mouth of the Saline river is directly north of the town.

Demographics

Administration

The 2019 Italian local elections saw Ottavio De Martinis, standing for Lega, elected as the Mayor of Montesilvano. On 25 May 2014, the city residents, alongside residents of neighboring cities of Pescara and Spoltore voted in a referendum on merging into a single city. Montesilvano voters approved the merger with 52.23% of the votes. The regional law approving the merger was passed on 8 August 2018, with a target date of 1 January 2022. It was later pushed back to 2023, and then again to 2027.

Twin towns — sister cities

Montesilvano is twinned with: * Gradiška,

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, since 2018 *

Bender, Moldova Bender (, ) or Bendery (, ; ), also known as Tighina ( mo-Cyrl, Тигина, links=no), is a city within the internationally recognized borders of Moldova under ''de facto'' control of the unrecognized Transnistria, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Rep ...

* Hajdúböszörmény,

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Notable people

* Giò Di Tonno, singer *

Dean Martin Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...

, singer and movie star whose father was from Montesilvano * Franco Marini, politician, Montesilvano senator and president of the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic (), or simply the Senate ( ), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament, the lower house being the Chamber of Deputies. The two houses together form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform iden ...

References

Cities and towns in Abruzzo {{Abruzzo-geo-stub