Pappardelle di Prato

Prato (population 150,000) is where many of the stunning fabrics that go into Italian high fashion are made. It is also the birthplace of Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469), one of the great artists of the Renaissance. I passed Prato once a week for a year commuting from Bologna to Florence. From the train one can see Prato’s cathedral, including a beautiful and peculiar outdoor pulpit designed in 1439 by Michelozzo and Donatello. Frescoes by Lippi are inside the church. When I