I went up into the mountains with Franco Petacci to visit
his quarry.
The Carrara quarries are about 10 km from the coast, they literally
take down the mountains which leaves a ragged landscape behind.
Marble has been quarried in this area for over 2000 years,
and some of the most iconic marble statues carved come from these mountains.
Quarry work is hard and not for the faint hearted, and it takes
skill and experience to find the right way to cut to get larger and un cracked blocks out of the rock formation.
The marble is cut with diamond wire cutters, and nothing
goes to waste - marble is almost 100% calcite, which is used from toothpaste to
the production of steel.
in “the olden days” they roped the blocks into the valley and
then further down to the marina in Carrara.
Many of the roads around here carry the name “via martiri di
lavorare”, many men have lost their lives in these mountains.
This is the wall where my block was quarried from
