Travelled:334km
Visited: Carrara marble quarry
Stay: Castiglione del Lago- pay parking €12/24hr and services at the shore of Lake Trasimeno GPS N43.12489 E12.05054
Visited: Carrara marble quarry
Stay: Castiglione del Lago- pay parking €12/24hr and services at the shore of Lake Trasimeno GPS N43.12489 E12.05054
It was a hot and humid night with a thunder storm threatening but no cool change. We had an early start and headed for Carrara, which is internationally renowned for its marble quarries. It is famous for its flawless white stone used by sculptors including Michelangelo's 'David'. The region's 300+ quarries date back to Roman times, making it one of the oldest industrial sites in continuous use in the world. It is an amazing sight from the town. We headed out towards the Colonnata and Fantiscritti quarries, to get a closer look.
On our way through the tunnels we were stopped by a gentleman(an operator) who offered us a tour of a quarry. Being Sunday and unsure if others would be open we opted to do our own personalised tour for €10ea. We may have been 'had' but it was interesting. Here is some information he bestowed on us: the marble blocks they cut are 10m high x 10m wide x 4m deep; the big diamond saw blade cuts the bottom of the marble block on the horizontal at 1m per hour; a robot diamond drill is used to make holes in the back corners which then allows them to feed the diamond rope through to cut the sides and the back; they use metal water bladders to expand the saw cut and then a bull dozer to push it away to fall on some rubble so it doesn't shatter; this process takes 7 days for each block which is valued at €2 million; the inferior stone is ground down to powder which is sold for cosmetic and pharmaceutical use.
After our visit we took the autostrade towards Rome, we drove through Tuscany, bypassing the towns there as we had visited them last year. We decided to stop on the way in a shady spot beside the lake to escape the heat. We were doubly lucky as a cool change came through and made everything more pleasant. After dinner we went for a stroll along the lake.
On our way through the tunnels we were stopped by a gentleman(an operator) who offered us a tour of a quarry. Being Sunday and unsure if others would be open we opted to do our own personalised tour for €10ea. We may have been 'had' but it was interesting. Here is some information he bestowed on us: the marble blocks they cut are 10m high x 10m wide x 4m deep; the big diamond saw blade cuts the bottom of the marble block on the horizontal at 1m per hour; a robot diamond drill is used to make holes in the back corners which then allows them to feed the diamond rope through to cut the sides and the back; they use metal water bladders to expand the saw cut and then a bull dozer to push it away to fall on some rubble so it doesn't shatter; this process takes 7 days for each block which is valued at €2 million; the inferior stone is ground down to powder which is sold for cosmetic and pharmaceutical use.
After our visit we took the autostrade towards Rome, we drove through Tuscany, bypassing the towns there as we had visited them last year. We decided to stop on the way in a shady spot beside the lake to escape the heat. We were doubly lucky as a cool change came through and made everything more pleasant. After dinner we went for a stroll along the lake.
No comments:
Post a Comment
We would love to hear from you...leave us a message below.