Carrara is a city and Comune in Tuscany famous for white and blue/grey marble. There were settlements in the area as early as the 9th century BC, when the Apuan Ligure lived in the region.
The current town originated from the settlement built to house the workers in the marble quarries created by the Romans after their conquest of the Ligurians in the early 2nd century BC. Carrara has been linked to quarrying and carving marble since the Roman age.
The Pantheon and Trajan’s column in Rome are constructed from Carrara marble and many sculptures from the Renaissance, including those by Michelangelo, were carved from it.
The marble industry continues today and the quarries can be seen from the Autostrada along the coast below the mountains. From a distance they are often mistaken for snow.
I have visited the marble caves many years ago, but it is a fascinating area to see, so I returned recently with friends. We found the Frantiscritti Cave from where it is possible to do tours of the area and the caves.
We chose the tour of the quarries. There is a ticket office beside the restaurant at the site. There is another ticket office nearby which does the cave tours.
While we were waiting for the tour to begin we wandered through the open air museum which shows how the workers lived and worked in the marble caves. It must have been a shockingly hard life in past centuries before the work became more mechanised.
At the entrance there is a typical worker’s hut. Capannari were quarrymen during the day and night watchmen at night after work. They had no heating and a cold, starving family of 7 or 8 people, including aged people, crammed into a tiny single room.
They lived close to the quarry to avoid a 1 or 2 hour walk to work. Because of the distance the families were cut off from the towns and as a result there was a high level of illiteracy.
There is a blacksmith beside the house. These men were kept busy making and repairing the workers’ tools.
There are various sculptures telling the stories of the marble workers.
There are photos depicting the daily life of the workers.
Soon we were loaded into a rugged vehicle to take us up the mountain to the quarries. We hurtled up the dirt roads at speed…great fun. The work is open cut now, rather than from caves.
Our driver and guide explained the process of excavating the marble from the mountain sides. It takes days to cut a single block from the site. It is still dangerous work, but not nearly as bad as when the marble was cut by hand and loaded on to bullock drays and carted to the port.
This would be an excellent job for people who grew up loving to play with their Tonka toys.
After our tour we headed further up the mountain to Colonnata, a small mountain village 550 metres above sea level. It is famous for marble and lardo. It is a well kept town, with the usual narrow, winding streets.
We came upon Cristo dei Cavatori in a marble floored piazza.
Beside it is a bas relief monument to the marble workers.
They sit in front of a pretty church…lined with marble.
Lardo is made by squeezing pork back fat into a marble basin. It is seasoned with sea salt and herbs and cured for at least 6 months. The marble caves were an excellent place to cure the lardo because the temperature was cool.
We walked past a place where the Lardo was stored and could smell the delicious aroma of the herbs.
Of course we had to try it. There are many places to eat lardo in Colonnata. We chose one with an outdoor setting as it was a lovely warm autumn day.
Lardo is sliced thinly. It is almost translucent. It is usually served on toasted bread and it melts in your mouth. Don’t knock it until you try it!
There are good views of the marble areas from Colonnata.
If you are in the area, a trip to the mountains behind Carrara is a great way to spend a day. The quarry tour is fun and a lardo lunch is delicious.
Thank you Liz and Alan for organising the trip, it was excellent.