Forte dei Marmi and Marble Mining

We ranged out from Barbarino today and drove to Fotre dei Marmi, and I would characterize the seaside village as the Palm Beach of Tuscany. Upscale beach homes and condominiums only topped by the purple blue of the Mediterranean. Robert timed our visit with the, also upscaled, street side market. Cashmere seemed to be the offering of choice, closely followed by leather and puffy down jackets. The ride coincided with the rainy day and, to our benefit, the sun was shining on the coast. Our lunch was the appropriate fish on the coast. 

We departed for Carrara and the white statue-quality marble quarries.

We boarded Land Rovers

and began our trek up the one-lane, nosebleed high, sheer drop, exhilarating path to see the quarrymen at their tedious  jobs. 

We donned our fluorescent safety vests and hard hats and hiked up into the white marble mountain.

I should say, inside the mountain. We learn everyday on our trips, I had no idea of the process for mining the marble.  

The big deal here is that it has been going on for two thousand years and our guide tells us that less than .001% of the marble has been taken. We also understand that Michelangelo  and other Medieval masters stood here, personally selected their finest, statue quality stone and supervised its recovery. Neat deal to be here also. 

Our day ended as usual, eating good food we’ve never seen before and having more DOCG. Life is better than it should be.

Sorry, I’m outrunning my lines of supply, before the quarry we visited an artist group carving the beautiful stone into world class art for people, churches and other entities all over the world.  One of the carvers was from Colorado; her work was outstanding.  

 Happy, Jim 

Pics:

The mountain is a National Geographic expedition site.