Tuscany is a place full of sleepy and pretty little towns that one could easily pass by without a second glance but which contain rich histories and unexpected surprises. Look more closely and you will be astounded by what you might see if you have found a
vacation rental in Tuscany and are exploring the region. One such town, that you could easily miss and think nothing more of, is
Pieve Santo Stefano, which is located between Florence and Arezzo and has a population of just over 3,000 people. Pretty and very typically Tuscan in appearance, you would think nothing unusual of it at first glance. However, there is much more to this fascinating town than first meets the eye. Back on August 5th, 1944, a year after Mussolini fell from power and the Nazis took control of Italy, the townspeople of Pieve Santo Stefano were abruptly awoken and marched north on pains of death with whatever they could bring with them while the town was completely destroyed. Bar a church in the centre of town, the rest was rubble. It was rebuilt but, if you look closely, you will see concrete in place of cobblestones and Renaissance gems replaced by modern facades.
Then came
Saverio Tutino, a former member of the Italian Resistance and journalist who had explored the globe and found himself in town for an art exhibition in 1984. He had had the idea of instituting a place to house and elevate the stories of normal Italians, something he felt was lacking in the country’s rich story-telling heritage, and thought Pieve Santo Stefano, this town haunted so heavily by the past, a perfect place for a, “House of Memory.” And, so, the town became famous for a different reason as home to the
Archivio Diaristico Nazionale, the National Diary Archive, and came to be known as the Città del Diario, the City of Diaries.