The marble quarries**, enormous white wounds that open themselves along wild and abrupt slopes, where small men handle gigantic stone
blocks. For the last 2000 years here nature and man's work daily embrace and reject each other in order to supply the raw material for
architectural and artistic works that embellish the squares, the palaces, and the private buildings all over the world.
We wish to let you know a different and fascinating reality, a combination of fatigue and brilliance, ancient sweat and modern technology.
The world of marble is not just the excavation or processing of a stone, but the history of a territory and its population that have been
synonyms of marble it self for ages. The quarries, the techniques and the history as well as the quarrymen's villages, their thousand-year
habits and customs, their language their food and everyday life.
Our guided tours to the marble quarries will allow you, in absolute safety, to get in touch directly with the people, places, instruments,
machineries and daily gestures of an ancient knowledge.
The guided tour by 4x4 must be reserved in advance and it starts EVERY DAY
**Please note: many people think there are in Carrara (only) marble mines or marble caves but is not so: almost all of the quarries aren’t looking like
mines or caves but, during the tour by 4x4 vehicles, according to the security, we will usually visit also an underground quarry
(popularly marble mine/marble cave).
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The Marble emotion |
When starts this tour?: | at 9,30 AM / at 11,00 AM / at 12,30 AM / at 2,00 PM / at 3,30 PM / at 5,00 PM |
Where starts this tour?: |
Strada comunale per Colonnata, 1 - località Calaggio Lat. 44.082224 - Long. 10.146488 |
It is possible a pick up/drop off at the Carrara-Avenza train station or at the campings located in Marina di Massa |
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How long lasts it?: |
1 hour & 25 minutes |
What will we see?: |
driving inside a lot of different active quarries, we’ll reach an altitude around 1000 meters above the sea level, having many stops for technical explanations, to take pictures, to see every single moment of the excavation etc. Guided tour schedule: off-road route along the winding roads in the Colonnata valley. Stopover inside an “as a well developed quarry” to provide detailed explanations about the old and the modern excavation sistems. Transfer to an “open sky quarry” to take highly panoramic pictures and to receive more information about the quarries regulation. Return to the starting point with a stop for a taste of the famous "Lardo of Colonnata IGP”.
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INSIDE the marble |
When starts this tour?: | at 9,30 AM and at 2,00 PM |
Where starts this tour?: |
Strada comunale per Colonnata, 1 - località Calaggio Lat. 44.082224 - Long. 10.146488 |
It is possible a pick up/drop off at the Carrara-Avenza train station or at the campings located in Marina di Massa |
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How long lasts it?: |
2 hours & 25 minutes |
What will we see?: |
driving inside a lot of different, active quarries, we’ll reach an altitude around 1000 meters above the sea level, having many stops for technical explanations, to take pictures, to see every single moment of the excavation etc. Programma della visita guidata: Guided tour schedule: off-road route along the winding roads in the Colonnata valley. Stopover inside an “as a well developed quarry” to provide detailed explanations about the old and the modern excavation sistems. Transfer to an “open sky quarry” to take highly panoramic pictures and to receive more information about the quarries regulation. Drive through the Miseglia valley having a stopover inside a “terraced quarry” before to drive inside an amazing “underground quarry”. Return to the starting point with a stop for a taste of the famous "Lardo of Colonnata IGP”. |
**Please note: our vehicles have 8 seats for the passengers, 4 of which are facing in the driving direction and 4 are facing laterally (see the picture below).The seats AREN’T bookable in advance and the guests, according to the needs of the participants to the guided tours, will choose as mutually agreed the seat.