Carrara is Italy's attractions
Carrara is among Italy's most unusual and alluring attractions. But it is not for the timid. The dust is thick, the noise deafening. Everywhere you look, outsized bulldozers pile mounds of shattered stone under the sheer faces of the quarries to cushion the fall of massive marble blocks cut away from them with high-speed diamond wires. Giant trucks loaded with these blocks, which weigh up to 20 tons each, thunder through the interminable tunnels of the Ferrovia Marmifera, a serpentine railway.The Ferrovia Marmifera's surprisingly elegant arched bridges and labyrinthine galleries were built at the turn of the century for trains but are now used by unstoppable monster trucks. Many of the zigzag quarry roads leading to the old train line are so steep and narrow that even these specially designed vehicles can't turn on them. So the trucks hurtle up or down one section in first gear, the next in reverse, and so on - a mesmerizing, heavyweight ballet from ridge to valley floor.
Sliced and scored, the Apuan Alps look like Titan sculptures. A generous observer might call the area the greatest single work of land art on earth. No wonder Michelangelo, during one his many marble-gathering forays here in the early 1500s, became obsessed with the idea of transforming an entire mountaintop - the 5,000-foot Monte Sagro - into the statue of a giant.
He might even have succeeded had mad Marquis Alberigo Cybo Malaspina, Lord of Carrara, had the necessary funds and workmen to put at Michelangelo's disposal. Mount Rushmore would have seemed a bagatelle by comparison.
In 1570, the Marquis's son, also conveniently named Alberigo, inaugurated the use of gunpowder in quarrying. It's thanks to this master of eco-devastation that some of the most spectacular avalanches of Carrara marble were created.
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Italian Marble
It is advisabe to use a porous material in this area, as bathrooms will always have a high level of humidity. Granite and Italian white marble from the Apuan area are good choices, and Breccia with its compact granularity, as well as other coloured marbles.
Kitchens New York
"Oh, man," is the response I get, followed by a long deep sigh, when I ask Aba at New York City´s Janovic Plaza how someone might go about getting stains out of marble.
Italian Marble
It is advisabe to use a porous material in this area, as bathrooms will always have a high level of humidity. Granite and Italian white marble from the Apuan area are good choices, and Breccia with its compact granularity, as well as other coloured marbles.
Kitchens New York
"Oh, man," is the response I get, followed by a long deep sigh, when I ask Aba at New York City´s Janovic Plaza how someone might go about getting stains out of marble.