Every design for Prato

In 1997 archaeologists at Gonfienti uncovered an Etruscan town nobody had known about, and it was already busy with wool and cloth, so the trade that defines Prato is older than Prato itself. The city proper began in the tenth century as two neighbouring villages, Borgo al Cornio and Castrum Prati, which grew together under the Alberti family, Counts of Prato. In the late Middle Ages the merchant Francesco Datini left behind an archive of documents on trade that historians still study.

Walk through the old centre and the past comes back in layers. Donatello, Filippo Lippi and Botticelli all left work here; the Cattedrale di Santo Stefano, the Castello dell'Imperatore and the Museo di Palazzo Pretorio stand a few streets apart; the Museo del Tessuto tells the story of the looms; and the bakers still make cantucci, the biscuits first baked in Prato in the Middle Ages. Today it is the second city of Tuscany, with a textile district that is the largest in Europe.

If you grew up between the Bisenzio and the Calvana, wear it with a weaver's pride: this city has always made its own cloth.