We spent most of our final day in the Lucca area investigating marble production. There are three sites of marble extraction around the small city of Carrara so that is where we headed out to.

Anyone who has read about Michelangelo will know of his obsession with Carrara marble. It is white which sets it apart from marble from other countries. And a lot of it has been quarried – the streets are often paved in marble, builidngs are sheathed with marble, Carrara marble statues abound. And that got me worrying.

We picked up Umberto, a Carrara tour guide, who would be our expert for the morning. My question about whether there was concern that the marble would run out was answered with a sarcastic “Thank you for caring.” I was nonplussed by this reply until later, at the quarry he pointed to the mountain behind us and said that was all marble and there was marble to at least 500 meters below where we stood.

Eventually Umberto did note that Italy has strict quotas on the uses of the marble, particularly the practice of grinding it down into calcium carbonate which is used in antacids, food colouring, as a food firming agent and a fertilizer. Our group was too polite to follow up with why?, so I can only suspect that Italy wants its marble to be visible.

We also visited Studio Corsanini, a marble workshop and toured of the works. If you look closely at Leonardo who is using a power tool to carve, you can see marble chips and dust flying out from the cut. Except for very delicate hand finishing, all sculpting is done with power tools.

We spent some time wandering through old Carrara with Umberto, then stopped for lunch before hopping onto the bus back to Lucca. Here are a few images of Carrara.

Road Scholar provided tickets for a Puccinii and Verdi selection of arias in St. Martin’s Cathedral which has stunning accoustics. Two sopranos sang beautifully to a piano accompaniment. I confess that I am not an opera lover. I find the music inaccessible and feel like it is coming at me rather than surrounding me. But it was fun to listen to some of Puccini’s compositions in his home town.

Following the concert, Gillian and I dined at Buca di Sant Antonio. As with our previous dinner on our own in Lucca, we were presented with a complimentary glass of champagne and an appetizer. We ordered the slow cooked egg which we had at Peperosa few days ago and the roast quail. A bottle of Tuscan brunello was just right. Our accommodating server snapped the photo of us.

A final walk through the gates to our hotel ended our time in Lucca. The hanging art work is part of the Lucca Bienalle.

Domani a Siena. Ci vediano Lì.