Ciocia

ciocie) is a kind of Italian footwear, now typically associated with the rural population of mountainous areas of Italy and the western Balkans.

The traditional form of ciocie are made with large leather soles, tied to the leg by straps (strenghe or curiole) bound between the ankle and the knee.

The long pointed toe may represent the legacy of the Etruscan calceus repandus[1] or a continuation of the medieval pigache or poulaine trends.

Combined with long straps binding the shoe to the leg, the ciocia became so common among poor peasants and shepherds in central and southern Italy that it gave rise to the term ciociari ("ciocia-wearers"), used in Central Italian dialects to mean poor country folk or bumpkins.

[2][1] Although this is now a pejorative term, 19th-century Romantic painters and poets celebrated the ciocie and the peasants' typically colorful cloths.