Tour of Carrara Marble Caves, Italy

I've taken many friends to the Carrara Marble Tour when I lived in Italy and had my own car. This time however since I did not rent a car, we decided on a private guide to drive us to the caves. I used Expedia to find a guide that could meet us at an accessible location nearby. This was an interesting experience. Clemens, our guide (I think he was German) ran his personal tour using his car; he also played the guitar and sang while on the tour. We met him in La Spezia, near the cruise terminal, an easy bus ride from San Terenzo. We two were the only guests on this tour, and it was a bit uncomfortable when he started singing to us at the terminal.

He stopped at some spots for photo taking, and a scultpor's studio on the route to the marble cave and we got to see some of the finished marble sculptures.

Then we reached the marble caves in Fantiscritti, where the marble cave operators took over. We put on helmets and got on a jeep that took us deep inside the cave. I've been on this tour quite a few times before, but it was still fascinating. Just imagine: Michelangelo was said to have used marble from this area!

After the tour, we got back in Clemens' car and he took us to Colonnata for lunch at the Larderia Il Poggio. On the menu is lardo, the speciality of this area. It was a lot of rather heavy food on a hot day, but it was all good.

The lardo is the white pieces in the middle, between the salami and proscuitto. I loved the taste the first time I had it during a reception at work, until I found out what it was, i.e. cured lard!

Clemens dropped us off close to our apartment, which saved the effort of getting a bus from La Spezia.