The Carrara Marble Quarries

Above the city of Carrara, deep inside the Apuan Alps, a prized marble – bright white with undulating soft blue-grey veins sits waiting to be unearthed. When I arrived in Carara via train, it was easy to mistake the vast swathes of bright white mountainsides as glaciers. Upon closer inspection, you realize they are enormous open-air quarries among the equally extensive underground quarries, where caverns the size of cathedrals have been excavated over centuries. The Ancient Romans first used this flawless limestone to build lasting monuments such as the Pantheon. Over the following millennia, the marble has continued to be intensely extracted from over 600+ quarries dotting the mountain slopes. 

Claire and I met Luca, from Toscana Tour Experience, at the studio on a rainy and chilly morning, which worked in our favor as many of the large trucks and machinery don't navigate the mountain roads in inclement weather. As we climbed the gravel mountain roads, clouds brushed along the peaks of the alps as the city of Carara and pockets of open-air quarries came into focus. The size of the open-air quarries is deceiving; it's only once you see the machines, which look like Little Tikes Toys, your brain grasps the scale and magnitude. 

Sweeping vista views where the town of Carara meets the Mediterranean Sea - It is at this moment you're thankful you're not the one driving along the cliffside of the mountain. At each lookout point Luca takes us to, the view becomes even more captivating as you walk on top of exposed marble, with stunning veins of color running through it. 

Soon we end up at the opening of Cava N 39, Fossa Degli Angeli. The "Marmo," the Italians call it, an oddly soft and rounded word for such a rigid material, encompasses you from every side. A soft yellow glow from the industrial lights illuminates the cave with the hum of machinery in a distant corner of the cave, an isolated world: both beautiful and bizarre. 

Touring the same marble quarries where Michelangelo would often come in person to select blocks of statuario for his masterpieces was an incredible visual moment, a bucket list experience for any art or history enthusiast. During my time here, I have been fortunate to see the various aspects of the marble's life, from its beginnings in the quarries to being worked on at the studio and then off to galleries or collector homes. When Claire came to Italy in the 80s to work, she experienced a shift in her life after she visited the quarries. I felt a similar calling as there was something so sacred about being up on the mountain. 

While a tour of the marble quarries is an unexpected idea when you're on your next holiday in Italy, consider booking with Luca and his family at Toscana Tour Experience. Not only will you experience the magnitude of the quarries and appreciate their place in history, but you may be fortunate to experience the Carrara delicacy of lardo di Colonnata.

"The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has." - Michelangelo.