Stia

Stia is a small town in Arezzo, in Tuscany, Italy. Stia is on the western edge of the Casentenesi National Forest Park. Stia grew up as the market place below the Guidi castle at Porciano. Presumably due to the topography, the piazza is not a normal square, but a more unusual triangular shape, sloping steeply at its far end. Today it is called Piazza Tanucci, after the Bernardo Tanucci, an Italian statesman, who was born in Stia in 1698. Stia boasts a pair of covered arcades that run along either side of the piazza. They house a variety of shops, bars and restaurants. On entering the piazza from the lower end, the baroque facade of Santa Maria della Assunta dominates the left-hand side of the street. Historically the Casentino was a fertile valley with various industries helping make the area prosper. Timber was important during the Medici period for shipbuilding, as was the woolen fabric, produced first to clothe the monks and nuns in the area, and then the wealthy families of Tuscany. 'Panno Casentino' used to be made with yarn spun by local women at home, and later was produced in modern cloth mills. At its height, the largest wool mill in Stia, built in 1838, employed over 500 people, and produced 700,000 metres of cloth a year. The factory is now a museum of wool production.

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Stia is it’s a stopover point on The Way of St Francis. You can reach Assisi in 12 days, Chiusi della Verna in 3 days and Civitas Vaticana - Città del Vaticano in 25 days.