carrera marble

[SteveP]

interesting story.
last time in italy the train passed by these quarries... stunning views of the white mountains of marble.
would be an interesting visit to check out these quarries. great photos in this piece.

The Majestic Marble Quarries of Northern Italy - The New York Times

[j44ke]

We were just there. The Torano quarry is supposedly inspired Dante's structure of hell. He was in exile from Florence in the city of Aulla, and he traveled to Carrara and walked up a road that goes around the eastern edge of the quarries. Obviously they weren't as deep as they are now, and there were more "steps" down into the quarry from the older block removal techniques (blocks were smaller then) but with a little imagination you can get how the quarry might influence Dante's idea. The road Dante followed is still there, and you can drive up it to an overlook (where I presume the shot in the article was taken.) When we were there several years ago, the clouds off the sea were running up the slope and over the ridge line on which the overlook is located. The sounds were pretty incredible. When we were there in June/July, the weather was perfect - sunny and blue - and much less dramatic.

When you visit, there is a fair amount of the quarries that are open to the public. You can just drive in and have a look. Dangerous areas are obviously chained off. And it is a little disconcerting to look in your rear view mirror and see a truck with a huge block of marble following. But if you can manage that, you get to see a lot of the process up close. Recommended stop for sure. And make sure you go to Colonnata, the small village up among the quarries where traditionally some of the marble cutters lived. Colonnata is famous for its lardo, sort of a fatback bacon - almost all white fat with thin streaks of bacon - that is eaten in thin slices or as a spread. It looks a lot like marble.

[davids]

That's very cool.
I want to see a photo essay of the sandbox where my manufactured quartz came from.

[Mark Walberg]

A look at this area on Google aerial view and on street view is worth a look.
A limited resource indeed.
I remember being fascinated by pieces of broken marble I used to fond when I was a kid.
Thanks for the pointer to this.

[s_curran]

We got a tour when we were there, really cool experience. There was an accident a few days before, and a few workers had lost there lives, so no one was working. The lady who was driving us around was amazing, and had married into a family that had been working them for generations.

9_marble-5020057.jpg 9_marble-5020054.jpg