Nuovo Mondo

Pesche di Prato are the reason to walk in: two small brioche domes joined with cream and blushed with liqueur syrup, a nineteenth-century city speciality that this bench has kept in daily production. Around them sits the rest of a Tuscan pasticceria, breakfast pastry in the morning, dry biscuits on the shelf, cakes in the case and a seasonal calendar that never quite repeats.

Sacchetti's bench

Paolo Sacchetti has led the pastry here since the shop opened in the centre of Prato in 1989, and he is vice-president of the Accademia Maestri Pasticceri Italiani. The approach is traditional in the strict sense: local specialities kept alive, ingredients treated plainly, and the same work repeated every morning rather than reinvented. Gambero Rosso's Italian pastry guide rates the shop Tre Torte, its top mark, and Nuovo Mondo is counted among the country's serious pastry addresses.

Breakfast, biscuits and cakes

Mornings run on cornetti, cornetti filled with jam, brioche filled with cream, budino di riso, cremino, fagottino alle mele, sfoglia alla crema and saccottino al cioccolato. The dry pastry shelf holds biscotti di Prato, occhi di bue, morbidoni alla vaniglia, sfogliatini, financiers and pasta di mandorle. The cake case runs to Millefoglie Caramellata, Monte Bianco, Profitterole, Tiramisu, Foresta Nera, Savarin and Dolce Luisa. Seasons bring panettone and colomba, quaresimali and ricciarelli, pan di ramerino, schiacciata alla fiorentina, schiacciata con l'uva, frittelle di riso and cenci, which is where the Tuscan calendar shows most clearly.

What to order

Start with the Pesche di Prato, then Giulebbe, the other local name worth keeping close on a first visit. After that, order by the hour: a cornetto or a budino di riso for a breakfast stop, biscotti di Prato or occhi di bue for something small beside a coffee, Millefoglie Caramellata, Savarin or Profitterole when the visit is really about dessert. It works as a bar as much as a shop, with espresso at the counter and something small to go beside it, which is how a pasticceria is used here in the first place. The laboratory also puts up jams and bottles zabaione with vin santo, so there is plenty to buy as well as to eat standing. The window is arranged like a picture, and it is the fastest way to see what came out that morning.