Carrara
Carrara has been famous for marble for centuries. The Renaissance sculptors came there, the Romans before them. The main products are white marble and grey marble. There are small deposits of red and green but colours are better found elsewhere in Italy.
Marble blocks or finished marble pieces can be transported easily nowadays but in earlier days was more difficult.
There is a local port and marble was often and is still sent by sea. There was a railway up to the quarries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but that has closed due to the availability of powerful road transport. One of the tunnels is now the entrance to an underground marble mine, the Fantiscritti mine.
We visited the Fantiscritti mine for a guided tour. The mine is worked 6am - 2pm daily and the tours start at 3pm.
View of mountains behind village Views of mountain behind quarry
Stone cutting in museum Tunnel entrance 2 unlikely miners
The tunnel is 1200 metres long and the mine workings are in the centre.