The town of Bientina is in the province of Pisa in the plain of the Valdarno di Sotto. It rises at the feet of Mount Pisano, near the floor of the now disappeared lake of Bientina and it has a population of about 6,000 inhabitants.

The church of Santa Maria Assunta of the XV century, the church of San Domenico that dates to the first half of the XVII century and the deconsecrated church of San Girolamo built around the XVII century that now is the Etruscan Museum can be visited inside the town of Bientina.
The town's toponym divides researchers: some of them think it comes from the Latin "bis antes" (that means "two hedges"), while others claim it derived from the Etruscan term "plitine". The town was first mentioned in 793 A.D. in a document with which Saximondo di Gumberto ceded part of the territory of the monastery of Sant'Andrea di Bientina to the bishop of Lucca. There is news on the town dating to 1117 in a purchase deed written by the bishop of Pisa.
In the ambit of the policy to stop hostilities with Lucca, the Archbishop of Pisa Ubaldo issued a new act in 1178 with which the inhabitants of Bientina are required to abandon their original lands to settle to the west of Lake Sesto joining the other Pisan peoples of the area. The inhabitants of Bientina moved here one year later. It seems that the castle was born in this period and its towers had some characteristics that are visible still today. Yet, some archaeologists state that the fortress could have risen on a previous village of Roman origins.
In 1285, Bientina was taken by Lucca. During the XIV century, numerous clashes between this town and the city of the tower followed one another for the possession of the tower, until Florence extended its dominion up to the town in 1402. One century later, the Pisans supported by Spanish troops tried to take it again, but the inhabitants of Bientina resisted to their assault and received numerous privileges as a reward for their loyalty to Florence. At this time, the village assumed the name of "Bientina Florentina".
In the XVI century, the passage of the whole area of Pisa under the dominion of the Tuscan Grand Duchy took place. In 1699, the worship of St. Valentine, a III-century martyr whose body was carried to Bientina from the catacombs of San Callisto, started to be attended. Numerous miracles were attributed to his relics to the extent that all the Grand Dukes, from Gian Giasone de' Medici to Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, went to Bientina during the years.
Moreover, the Lorraine carried out numerous reclamations and rearrangement works of the Bientina's water network. It was in the frame of such operations that the definitive drying up of the Lake of Bientina occurred.