Pretorio Palace Museum

Inside the tall, crenellated, 14th-century Palazzo Pretorio in Prato's civic heart, the communal museum kicks off with a World War II-damaged 1498 Filippino Lippi tabernacle he frescoed for his mother, Lucrezia, and a Portrait of Baldo Magini by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. Through the large salon of 16th- and 17th-century canvases you can get to the stairs up to the good stuff. A long, poorly lit hall glitters with the gold-leaf backgrounds of one of the finest collections of polyptych altarpieces in Tuscany. Among the masterpieces is a predella by Bernardo Daddi telling the story of the Holy Girdle cartoon-strip style. Most of the works, though, are various takes on the Madonna theme (with Child, with Saints, Enthroned, and so on) by Pietro di Miniato, Lorenzo Monaco, Luca Signorelli, both Filippo and Filippino Lippi, Raffaelino di Garbo, Andrea di Giusto, and Botticini. On the piazza outside is a statue of Francesco Datini with bronze plaques showing the man's life accomplishments -- besides making obscene amounts of money in the 14th-century textile business, he founded the charitable Ospedale del Ceppo. Note: The museum is still closed for renovations as it has been for years, and it seemed doubtful at press time that it would reopen by 2010. In the meantime, the collection of excellent 14th- and 15th-century polyptychs and paintings is on display at the Museo di Pittura Murale in San Domenico .