Got back last night from a three day trip to Prato. The main objective was to see the exhibition Lo Stile dello Zar in the weaving museum in Prato which looked at the mutual influence on each other’s fashion of Tsarist Russia and 13th - 18th century Italy. Left Marche on Saturday in torrential rain. However, once we had crossed the Appennines we were in brilliant sunshine which lasted the whole of our trip - temperatures in the 20s. Prato is known as the Italian Manchester, but unlike the English city still has a flourishing manufacturing base. The historic centre is attractive and the cathedral stunning. The hotel was diabolical - not cheap and boiling hot. The air-conditioning didn’t work and the only way we could sleep was to keep the window wide open. Breakfast - which we discovered later was an additional cost - was vile. But we dined well in the town: Italian Saturday, Indian Sunday, and Japanese Monday. On Monday we took the train to Florence to visit a weaving materials shop near the cathedral, and we stopped off in Arezzo on the way home on Tuesday. In the flesh Arezzo is even more beautiful than in La vita è bella - and mercifully free of fascists rounding up people for Auschwitz.
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