Discovering the Apuan Alps and their marble

There is a piece of Italy set in one of the most precious stones in the world, in the side of a mountain overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea.

3 min readNov 23, 2022

📌 Tuscany

A train journey in this area is varied and fascinating: from the stations of Massa, Carrara and Forte dei Marmi you will quickly find yourself among the quarries, which can be reached independently by local buses and taxis.

Apuan marble, in particular Carrara marble, is extracted from some of the most important quarries in the world.

A guided tour of the belly of the mountain is equivalent to a journey to the center of the Earth, which thrills young and old!

The excursion takes place in the suggestive marble basins of Colonnata, Torano and Fantiscritti, or the three main quarrying locations along the route of the former Marble Railway.

The itinerary crosses the Bridges of Vara and the majestic tunnels dug into the rock, to discover the ancient pre-Roman quarries.

Here, large blocks of white marble are extracted which, since the time of Julius Caesar, have made the history of universal art and architecture, making Apuan marble famous all over the world, among the pride of Made in Italy.

The hands and genius of Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and Antonio Canova have rested on its surface, and have shaped it in the form of works of art.

Until the mid-twentieth century, the blocks were transported downstream with the dangerous method of lizzatura, which involved transport on ox-drawn wagons.

The historical re-enactment of the lizzatura is held every year, in Carrara, in the month of August.

The cities of Massa, Carrara and Forte dei Marmi bear the traces of the chisel in their history.

Do you know what, for example, the emblem of the city of Carrara is?

A wheel with the Latin motto Fortitudo mea in rota: “my strength is in the wheel”, with reference to that of the cart used to transport the marble down from the Apuane.

From the Alps to the sea it is a moment and even the coast seems to be shaped by marble: this beautiful stretch of coast, in fact, glitters with small white grains that have slipped down from the mountain behind it.

The lunch break not to be missed? A tasting of the undisputed prince of Carrarese gastronomy: Lardo di Colonnata IGP, a delight for the palate!

Thanks to a long seasoning process, right inside the marble basins, the lard minimizes the so-called “bad cholesterol” and turns into a goodness to be enjoyed without too many feelings of guilt.

From the city of Carrara we move to the “twin” of Massa, with which, until the sixteenth century, it constituted the Duchy of Massa-Carrara.

Here we visit the Rocca Malaspina, the fortress in the center of the city that since the twelfth century has overflowed with stories and legends: on all those of the Marchesa Pallavicini and the ghost of Bianca Maria Aloisia.

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Finally, a stop on the long, golden and well-equipped beaches of the Apuan coast, where the queen of entertainment and luxury shopping is certainly Forte dei Marmi.