The city of the Diary
Pieve Santo Stefano, is the first Tuscan town crossed by the river Tiber. This favored the development of the center already in Roman times: the trunks that were used for the construction of ships and temples departed from the woods of Pieve, then called Sulpitia, in Rome. Precisely because of its vital but dangerous proximity to the river, in 1855 the whole town was flooded for several months.
During the Second World War Pieve was an integral part of the outposts of the Gothic Line. In 1944 the Germans after having evacuated the town undermined the houses of Pieve and blew them up. Only the churches, the Municipality and some structures located around the Piazza delle Oche were saved. The National Diary Archive, born from an idea of the journalist Saverio Tutino, has been collecting all the historical memories of the town since 1984, to strengthen the memory of the past times, beyond the difficulties. The headquarters of the Archives now preserve more than 6500 pieces, a number destined to grow thanks to the Pieve Award, which every year brings hundreds of manuscripts. The great resonance of the Foundation lead to the accomplishment that Pieve was renamed "City of the Diary".