Montella is a town with 7,979 inhabitants, 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:...

(municipality) in the province of Avellino

Province of Avellino

The Province of Avellino is a province in the Campania region of Italy. The area is typified by many small towns and villages scattered across the province; in fact only two towns have a population over 20,000; its capital city Avellino and Ariano Irpino....

, Campania

Campania

Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The zone was inhabited already in the neolithic period. The town was born like Sannites' village in the I millennium a.C., to become a Municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Roman empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

 and town under the Longobards.

Overview

Italian singer Aurelio Fierro

Aurelio Fierro

Aurelio Fierro was a successful Italian actor and singer who specialized in songs in the Neapolitan dialect.-Career:...

 was born here. Hall of Fame

Basketball Hall of Fame

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, honors exceptional basketball players, coaches, referees, executives, and other major contributors to the game of basketball worldwide...

 basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 coach Geno Auriemma

Geno Auriemma

Luigi "Geno" Auriemma is the head coach of the University of Connecticut Huskies women's basketball team, which he has led to seven National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I national championships...

 was also born in the commune, although he emigrated with his family to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 at age 7. Giovanni Palatucci

Giovanni Palatucci

Giovanni Palatucci was an Italian police official who saved thousands of Jews from being deported to Nazi extermination camps....

, one of Italy's righteous, who saved more than 5000 Jews during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, was born here.

It is also known around the world for its Latin speaking community centered around Accademia Vivarium Novum

Accademia Vivarium Novum

The Academy Vivarium Novum has a reputation as the only college in the world where students can spend one or more years immersed in Latin and Ancient Greek. These languages are spoken both in and outside of the classroom...

.

From 1990-2009 Latinists from around the world have congregated around Luigi Miraglia and other less notable teachers.