Our Cultural Excursion to Prato

This Sunday started with an 8:00 AM alarm. All of the students were told to meet at the farmacia (pharmacy) inside the Santa Maria Novella train station by 9:45 sharp. To our surprise, it was located directly in front of a McDonalds! Although the pizza, pasta, meat and cheese trays have been treating us well, we succumbed to the homey smells of bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches and hash browns.

Our first destination was the city of Prato, known for its textiles and wool production dating back to the 12^th century. When we got off the train we proceeded to the textile museum, located inside a real textile factory with the machinery that was used in the Middle Ages (pictured left). The factory was one of the tallest smokestacks in Prato, causing it to be a target that was bombed during World War II.

After passing the large machine, we entered into a room with glass cases containing outfits in chronological order from the 1700’s to the 1800’s. At the beginning of the century women would wear extravagant dresses with cages underneath (pictured to the left). Towards the second half of the 18^th century the clothes began transitioning to something simpler. Aristocracy started to travel, leading to a neoclassical style where women wore dresses that were more comfortable (no cages), had less decorations, and were more practical (pictured to the right).

    

In the past, the factory workers had to use what they could find in nature (e.g., plants, herbs) to add color to the textiles, and some colors were worth more than others. Wearing red clothing indicated someone who had excess money to spend on clothes. If a deep red velvet fabric was spotted, that meant they were very wealthy. In order to create the red color, a parasite (cochineal) found on cacti was collected, dried, and turned into a powder. Aside from red, any deep color was also expensive (e.g., deep blue, deep yellow). A deep yellow dye was made from turmeric. Poor people or monks would wear beige, dirty off-white, or grey clothes because they could not afford added dyes. The color of clothing was used as a way to identify people and their status in society.

Aside from being known for textiles, Prato is famous for two desserts: Pesche di Prato and cantucci. The latter is also known as biscotti di Prato and is typically a hard biscuit studded with almonds and commonly dipped in a dessert wine (vino santo), though there are regional variations of this throughout Italy. Pesche de Prato (Peaches of Prato) are rounded brioches soaked in red alkermes liqueur, filled with a custard crème, covered with sugar, and topped with a candied orange peel. They are called the “peaches of Prato” because of their resemblance to the fresh, juicy fruit (pictured below). Thankfully we were able to taste both of these delicious treats before heading to our next destination, Pistoia, where we toured an old church and the historic city center.

This post was written by Audrey Rehberg, a first-year doctoral student in Consumer Science from Westfield, IN. Her research interests include male and female sexual health issues and the correlates of sexual pleasure.