Every year, the municipality of Santa Croce sull' Arno enlivens its streets with a sprightly carnival, following a tradition that has been repeating itself for 70 years now. It is in the province of Pisa and it has a population of about 1200 inhabitants. It is known for its hides factories. Inside the city, the Church of St. Cristina and the St. Lorenzo's Collegiata can be visited.

The information on Santa Croce sull' Arno dates to the XIII century.
Nevertheless, in a document of 1289, it can be inferred that the town had already been fortified, which leads to presume that this town possibly dates to remoter times. The walls protecting the town were thrown down by the Arno river flood in 1333.
The autonomous community of Santa Croce had always been under Florence's control, except during a short period when it was dominated by Guido Novello, one of the king Manfredi's feudatories.
The story of the town is characterized by long skirmishes with the villages of Fucecchio and Castelfranco di Sotto for the possession and the exploitation of the Cerbaie woods, which were a precious resource in the Middle Ages.
Harshly contended for its wood and game abundance, the woods were definitively given to Santa Croce only thanks to the fortunate intervention of the podestà of Lucca who was asked to settle this dispute.
In 1315, Santa Croce was subjected by Uguccione della Faggiola on behalf of the Republic of Pisa. Successively, in 1323, the village went through the siege by the army of Lucca, which occupied and governed it until 1327. From that year on, Santa Croce and the territories linked to it entered the Florentine Republic spontaneously, probably because they wanted to avoid further aggressions by the other two big Tuscan cities which were fighting.
Therefore, from the mid-XIV century on, the village followed Florence' destiny throughout the period of the Medici's seigniory, the arrival of the Spanish, the Grand-ducal age until the Unification of Italy.
During World War II, the town experienced at its own expenses its closeness to the strategic area of the Arno river, enduring bombings and aggressions.
The inhabitants of Santa Croce, though, did not remain defenceless before the war's barbarity. A meaningful episode occurred on March 4, 1944, when the inhabitants of the town started a strike to protest against the Nazi-fascist occupation.