This eagerly awaited event comes at the end of Prato ancient fair.

The historical pageant has traditionally paraded in the streets of Prato on September 8th since the 13th century, when Prato was a republic. Nowadays six hundred people in historical costumes coming from all over Italy take part in the parade.

Flag-flyers and musicians, falconers and arbalesters, dames and cavaliers parade along the streets and in the squares of Prato historic centre before reaching the cathedral of Santo Stefano, the Duomo of Prato. It is right there that the "Sacra Cintola" (or "Sacro Cingolo") is displayed to the public for the second-last time in the solar year. The legend goes that the Virgin Mary gave the strip of green fabric, woven with gold threads and less than one metre in length, to Saint Thomas during the Assumption. The merchant Michele Dagomari took it to Prato and, after having kept it all his life long, while he was diyng, gave it to the parish church of Santo Stefano.

The celebration begins in the morning of September 8th (in the past there could be more than one ostention, which could be repeated on the following day). During the day, the participants to the historical pageant taking place in the evening animate the squares of the town.

Strolling in Prato will, therefore, be like travelling in time, to a period in which imposing walls surrounded the villages and the sought-after Tuscan holiday farms were just humble peasant houses.

And after the pageant and the ostension..., like any good tourist, look at the unfailing fireworks in Prato sky!