Staffoli is the only hamlet in the municipality of Santa Croce sull’Arno. The small village near Cerbaie was first mentioned in 1198, but it appears that the name has older origins, linked to the advance of the Lombards in Italy. The need to connect the kingdom of Pavia with the southern duchies by a safe route determined the choice of an itinerary that crossed the Apennines at the Cisa Pass and then turned away from the coast towards Lucca. In order not to approach the Byzantine areas, this route (which took the name Via di Monte Bardone) only passed through the Lombard territories and led to Rome. And Castrum Staffili was located precisely along this route.
With the passage of time, the pavements of the Via di Monte Bardone gave way to paths travelled by wayfarers, other tracks and roads, with the ground being paved only where there were settlements. When Longobard domination gave way to that of the Franks, the Via Di Monte Bardone changed its name to Via Francigena and established itself as the main route by which merchants, armies and pilgrims passed.
The church of San Michele Arcangelo in the village was built in 1629 on the remains of a Romanesque-style building destroyed by fire.
Villa Maiorfi, inhabited by Facdouelle, a French officer linked to Napoleon, was built in 1790. Between 1944 and 1945, the Montefalcone Estate, now a nature reserve open to the public, established a base camp for the Allied Brazilian military forces, who built a small altar for the worship of the Madonna (the only example in Italy of wartime sacred devotion). Every year on 25 April, a ceremony is held to commemorate the fallen soldiers, with the presence of local and Brazilian authorities.