Carmiano is a town and comune

Comune

In Italy, the comune is the basic administrative division, and may be properly approximated in casual speech by the English word township or municipality.-Importance and function:...

in the Italian province

Province

A province is a territorial unit, almost always an administrative division, within a country or state.-Etymology:The English word "province" is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French "province," which itself comes from the Latin word "provincia," which referred to...

 of Lecce

Lecce

Lecce is a historic city of 95,200 inhabitants in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Lecce, the second province in the region by population, as well as one of the most important cities of Puglia...

 in the Apulia

Apulia

Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...

 region of south-east Italy. Carmiano is in the heart of the province of Lecce and Salento

Salento

Salento is the south-eastern extremity of the Apulia region of Italy. It is a sub-peninsula of the main Italian Peninsula, sometimes described as the "heel" of the Italian "boot"...

. It is located 20 km east of the Ionian Sea

Ionian Sea

The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...

 (Porto Cesareo

Porto Cesareo

Porto Cesareo is a town and comune in the Italian province of Lecce in the Apulia region of south-east Italy....

) and 16 km west of the Adriatic Sea

Adriatic Sea

The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...

 (San Cataldo

San Cataldo

-Places:Italy*Chiesa di San Cataldo, a church in the City of Palermo, Sicily*San Cataldo, Apulia, a nature reserve in the Province of Lecce*San Cataldo di Lecce, Apulia*San Cataldo, Sicily, a commune in the Province of Caltanissetta...

).

Coat of arms

Its coat of arms contains a tree with a star in a middle bordered with three brown stripes with a yellow gold rim with a golden crown at the top.

Geography

The commune is located in the area called the Valle della Cupa

Valle della Cupa

Valle della Cupa is an area of Italy centered around the town of Lecce, including the towns of Trepuzzi, Novoli, Carmiano, Arnesano, Monteroni, San Pietro in Lama, Lequile and San Cesareo di Lecce. Since the 15th century, the region's aristocracy has elected the area as their ideal place for...

 or the Cupa Valley and is siuated northwest of the Salentino cape. The terrain is mainly flat and features olive crops as well as fruits and vegetables along with cattle and others.

Population History

Year	Population
1861	1,987
1871	2,164
1881	2,542
1901	3,364
1911	4,241
1921	5,179
1931	6,514
1936	7,204
1951	8,691
1961	9,252
1971	10.033
1981	11,548
1991	12,176
2001	12,160
2006	14,700

The population has been growing since 1861 and slowed slightly between 1961 and 1981, the population slightly declining by 16 between 1991 and 2001, in the 1930s, it surpassed its neighboring population of Leverano

Leverano

Leverano is a town and comune in the Italian province of Lecce in the southeastern part of the Apulia region of south-east Italy. Its 2001 population was 13,981.-Population History:-History:...

 and again surpassed in the mid-2000s where it is at the present level.

History

The origin of the communal name probably comes from the colour "carminium" (red), another one that it came from a name of the Roman centurion "Carminius" which assigned to the Roman Senate

Roman Senate

The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

, the land at the time was in the area of Messapia

Messapia

Messapia may refer to:* The ancient region occupied by the extinct Messapii tribe* The modern region of Salento, roughly equivalent to the ancient region* Messapia, Greece...

and was situated in the country.