Santo Stefano di Sessanio

Under the Medici, who held this barony from 1579 to 1743, Santo Stefano was the base of the Florentine Signoria for the trade in carfagna wool: it was produced here, worked in Tuscany and sold across Europe. Sheep there were in plenty: in 1474 the villages of the barony had more than ninety-four thousand of them registered at the customs house of Apulia.

On 6 April 2009 the L'Aquila earthquake brought down the Medici Tower, the symbol of the village: it was rebuilt and reopened in 2021, after three years of work. The village, which had been emptying out, began to live again on tourism when, in 1994, an entrepreneur bought a large part of the houses to turn them into a scattered hotel, restoring them as they were. And there is the lentil, which bears the village's name.