What is "prato"

Prato is a city and comune in Tuscany, Italy, the capital of the Province of Prato. The city is at the foot of Monte Retaia, elevation , the last peak in the Calvana chain. The lowest elevation in the comune is , near the Cascine di Tavola, and the highest is the peak of Monte Cantagrillo at . The Bisenzio (river), a tributary of the Arno, flows through it.

Historically, Prato's economy has been based on the textile industry. The renowned Datini archives are a significant collection of late medieval documents concerning economic and trade history, produced between 1363 and 1410.

Prato is also a centre of the slow food movement, with many local specialities, including cantucci, a type of biscotti, sold by local speciality bakers.

Since the late 1950s, the city has experienced significant immigration, firstly from southern Italy, then from other nationalities, the most notable being a large Chinese community which first arrived in the late 1980s. With more than 191,000 inhabitants, Prato is Tuscany's second largest city and the third largest in Central Italy, after Rome and Florence.

Prato is the common name for a traditional Austrian cookbook first published in 1858 by Katharina Prato (1818–97, born Polt) as The South German Cuisine. It became popular under the name The Large Prato (Die grosse Prato) and appeared in 80 editions as well as several translations until 1957. In 1931 V. Leitmaier, the granddaughter of the author, published a shortened version called The Small Prato(Die kleine Prato).

Prato (Italian for grassy field, meadow or Portuguese and Galician for plate, dish) may refer to:

Prato (Leventina) is a municipality in the district of Leventina in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.