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The continuous form is used to express an action in progress at a specified time, either in the past, present and future. Examples in English are:
When the phone rang I was watching the TV
At the moment I’m having dinner
This time tomorrow I’ll be sitting on the train.

Italian works more or less in exactly the same way, with our auxiliary ‘be’ replaced with the Italian ’stare’, and the verb used in the gerund form

Present continuous

(io) sto, (tu) stai, (lui/lei) sta, (noi) stiamo, (voi) state, (loro) stanno + GERUND
e.g. sto mangiando (I’m eating)

Past continuous

(io) stavo, (tu) stavi, (lui/lei) stava, (noi) stavamo, (voi) stavate, (loro) stavano + GERUND
e.g. stavo mangiando (I was eating)

Future continuous

(io) starò, (tu) starai, (lui/lei) starà, (noi) staremo, (voi) starete, (loro) staranno + GERUND
e.g. staremo mangiando (we will be eating)

Gerunds are formed by taking the root of the infinitive and adding either -ando or -endo
ballare - ball - ballando (dancing)
tenere - ten - tenendo (holding)
finire - fin - finendo (finishing)