Tuesday afternoon we left Lucca for Levanto, our base for the Cinque Terre. Along the way we made a detour to Carrara, home of the famous white Carrara marble that has been shipped all over the world since medieval times. My guidebook says 1.5 million tons of it are still shipped out every year.
Our detour off the motorway took us first through Massa, quite an ugly town, where marble seems to be the main industry. We eventually made our way into Carrara, a smaller and more attractive town. The cathedral was difficult to find, but eventually we parked in a piazza and I walked up the hill to snap a few pictures. It was very nice, made of Carrara marble of course, in a Romanesque style similar to Pisa and Lucca.
There are some interesting symbols on the facade, which a reader of this blog wrote to request I photograph if I was in the area. It ended up being on our way and I was happy to oblige!
Then we drove further on to the Cave di Marmo, or "Marble Caves", where the marble is quarried out of the mountains. It was quite fascinating! The mountainside looked white with snow, but it was just the uncovered marble gleaming in the sun.
We drove past marble pits and through very dusty tunnels. There wasn't much traffic up there and it felt like we were driving through a work site that you'd expect to be off-limits. What fun!
For those with more time, there are tours of some of the caves and you can drive closer to most of them on your own.