Prato

Behind the Emilia Romagna region, you will find the very green forests of Val Bisenzio and the flat land stretching between Florence and Pistoia, and then by going up the gently sloping hills of Montalbano you will be among vineyards, olive groves and Renaissance villas. These places around Prato are a perfect mix of nature with very old and contemporary art -an original juxtaposition of the traditional and the modern.

Prato can be a very interesting historical excursion that starts in the middle ages with Castello dell’Imperatore, the Romanic Cattedrale di Santo Stefano, the city Duomo and the stunning Palazzo Pretorio, continuing with the Renaissance with the splendid Church of Santa Maria delle Carceri. The 17th century and Neoclassic style are embodied by the Fontana del Bacchino (Small Bacchus fountain) and the Metastasio Theater, and the avant guard period is represented by the “Luigi Pecci” Center of Contemporary Art, an international reference point for today's modern artistic trends.

The towns of Poggio a Caiano and Carmignano are authentic pearls of art, history and landscape. They were very much loved by Lorenzo and Ferdinand de Medici who built here their beautiful country homes such as “Villa Ambra” and “La Ferdinanda”. Not to be missed in the Pieve di San Michele a Carmignano, the sublime late-Renaissance fresco of the Resurrection, by Pontormo.

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