Bagni di Lucca sits in these mountains
The Apuan Alps behind nearby Carrara contain the world’s largest deposits of marble. At the end of the Triassic and the beginning of the Jurassic era, when this region was underwater, limestone, shell and alluvial deposits were compressed at high temperatures by shock waves caused by the rise in the level of the sea. The result was marble. Over 100 million years later, when the water level sank, the marble deposits came to the surface, reaching heights of 2,000 metres.
that white stuff is not snow - it's marble
The Romans first started quarrying marble, using slaves and captured workers. As you can imagine it was heavy, dangerous work. Iron wedges had to be driven with large hammers into cracks to break the blocks away from the mountain. Sometimes wedges of dry wood would be driven into cracks and then soaked in water. When the wood swelled the marble would crack.
The resulting blocks could weigh anything up to 20 tons and had to be lowered with ropes held by men down the steep slopes over logs smeared with soap. There would be teams of workers on either side of the block. Obviously it was incredibly dangerous work. Once down the mountain, the blocks were loaded onto oxcarts and taken to the port and shipped to Rome. The methods remained much the same until fairly recent times. In the 1970s modern operations were introduced. In mainly opencast mining, horizontal and vertical channels are bored along the edges of the rock, along which a diamond studded cutting cable is inserted. Trucks now do the work of the ox carts.
it all looks lovely from here
part of the marble reserves
In the 3 clefts of Colonnata, Miseglia and Torano above Carrara there are 190 quarries. The annual output is 1 million tons. It is estimated that the marble reserves will run out in 1,000 years. The most prized pure white marble is almost all gone.
changing the shape of the mountain
It is definitely worth a trip up into the mountains behind Carrara. It is possible to go into the cave where Michelangelo got the marble for his David. There is also an excellent museum up there where you can see how the marble workers lived and worked. Then head up to Colonnata for some lardo. Click here for more on this treat.