Nave, Lombardy

Nave
Comune
Comune di Nave
Nave Location of Nave in Italy
Coordinates:
Country	Italy
Region	Lombardy
Province / Metropolitan city	Brescia (BS)
Frazioni	Cortine, Dernago, Mitria, Monteclana, Muratello, Sacca, San Cesario, San Rocco
Area
• Total	27 km2 (10 sq mi)
Elevation	236 m (774 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	11,126
• Density	410/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Navensi
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	25075
Dialing code	030
Patron saint	San Costanzo
Website	Official website

Nave is a town and comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy, Italy. Neighbouring communes are, from the south and clockwise: Brescia, Bovezzo, Concesio, Lumezzane, Caino, Serle and Botticino. It is located in the Garza valley.

The origin of the name Nave (Nàe in the local Lombard language) is not certain. Some maintain it comes from nava (cfr. English navel) meaning the valley basin in which Nave sits, others think it is a contraction from Latin nam vallis, wide valley [1]. Another possibility is it comes from Latin navis meaning ship (cfr. Italian nave with the same meaning) due to the overall shape of the town when seen from the Maddalena mountain. Notwithstanding this hypothesis being held as improbable, the coat of arms of the town sports a ship on it.

Originally Nave consisted in a series of loosely connected urban sections: Nave proper (Nave centro, Nàe), Campanile (Kampanìl), Cortine (Kurtìne), Dernago (Dernàk), Mitria (Mìtria), Monteclana (Monteklàna), Muratello (Möradêl) which eventually connected together following urbanization. This is reflected by the fact that Nave does not have a main square, which is very uncommon for an Italian town.

A Lombard language tongue twister plays on Nàe being both the name of the town and a past tense of the verb nà (English to go, Italian andare): en dè ke nàe a Nàe go 'nkontràt el prèt de Nàe, 'l ma dìt endò ke nàe me go dìt ke nàe Nàe, which can be translated as: I was going to Nave when I met the priest of Nave, he asked me where I was going and I told him I was going to Nave.