Carrara

Our guide, Umberto, met us at the Carrara train station, where we exchanged greetings. He loaded us into his van, started the engine and we set off for the quarry. We arrived and put on hard hats for safety and got out of the van. Marble was everywhere. I asked Umberto if we could take a marble home and guess what he said. "Anything you can carry is yours," he said. LOL! I picked the biggest I could find.  Umberto gave us some history and valuable information about the quarry. Did you know that the quarry where Michelangelo got his marble from is still running to this day. Wow! My favorite part was when he explained to us how marble was cut from the mountain. A diamond wire cuts horizontally and another cuts vertically. Next the workers saw on one side with a chainsaw. (I hope to figure out a way to post a picture of the diagram I drew in my journal so you can understand it visually.)

After that, we drove into the heart of the mountain. It was cold, wet and had a clammy feel. In there we saw the Virgin Mary in the stone, cut unintentionally. It was amazing! Next we went to a gift shop with an outdoor museum. Umberto showed us the tools used in the past to cut the marble. We experienced cutting the marble with a two-person handsaw and boy, it was a tiring experience. Umberto told us that it would take 2 strong men to saw only 3 cm a day! We rounded the corner and saw a marble David statue that was made entirely by a robot and some men who were smoothing the marble with just water and sandpaper. I'm going to make sure Mummy buys us some sandpaper when we get back to Arizona.  All in all, it was an amazing trip.