Carrara marble is one of
the most prestigious marbles in the world.
A slab can cost up to
$400 per square meter,
and over history, it has been used
for some remarkable buildings.
Think of the Pantheon in Rome,
or Michelangelo's iconic statue David.
In fact, Michelangelo
himself used to come here
to choose personally the
slab for his masterpieces.
And today, we are about 1,700 meters
above the sea level
in one of the 188 quarries there are here
in the mountains of Carrara
to find out why this marble is so special.
What from a distance might
look like snowy summits
are actually mountains
made entirely of marble.
Welcome to the Apuan Alps,
a mountain range in northern Tuscany
that stretches for 58 kilometers
and reaches 2,000 meters high.
Marble has been carved here
since the ancient Roman times,
and because of its millennial history,
the Carrara quarries
have produced more marble
than any other place on Earth.
The market as a whole is worth
over €1 billion ($1.1 billion)
and produces 4 million
tons of marble every year,
with 13,000 people involved.
The quarries were even
featured in a James Bond movie,
with Daniel Craig driving
an Aston Martin DBS
up the marble slopes.
But the real quarries are
nothing like that 007 scene,
and we wouldn't really recommend
driving your Aston Martin up there.
Roads are steep and small,
with lots of dangerous turns.
If you think that every day
600 truck drivers drive on these streets,
each carrying 50 tons of marble...
Yeah, that sounds totally safe.
We visited two quarries:
Cava Querciola, No. 147,
and Cava Fiordichiara, No. 76,
which is a cave inside the mountain.
The first thing you notice
when approaching the quarry
is its perfectly linear shape.
It almost looks like the mountain
has been sliced in perfect square blocks.
And this is actually the case.
Marble extraction in Carrara is done
with a 5-millimeter diamond wire.
To get a slab of marble, the
quarrymen drill three holes:
a vertical one from the top,
and two horizontal ones from the base.
The three holes meet in
one single strategic spot.
The diamond wire is positioned
inside two of the three holes
and is rotated by a
machine placed on rails.
The cable then saws the rock
and is continuously filled
with water as it turns,
as water acts as a lubricant.
The technique is repeated two times
to saw the remaining sides
until the block is fully
detached from the mountain.
The wire technique can also
be used to shape and square
big blocks after they've been cut.
Instead of the wire, sometimes
big chainsaws may be used.
As marble blocks are extremely heavy,
things can go wrong and damage the slab.
For example, there could be
natural fractures in the stone
that make the block crumble
into pieces after extraction.
This is why the region of
Tuscany has put in place
regulations to ensure that at least 25%
of the marble extracted in a quarry
is actually turned into blocks.
But 25% is a small number for some
who worry that the Apuan
Alps will soon disappear
in the quest for the perfect slab.
And yes, this gap between
scrap marble and usable blocks,
together with Carrara marble's
worldwide reputation as a luxury stone,
is making prices skyrocket.
For example, a slab of
Statuario or Calacatta marble
can cost over €10,000 ($11,000) per ton.
And if that marble is
extracted from a cave,
expect the price to go up,
as cave mining bears
higher extraction costs.
The more expensive one is usually
the type of marble that's exported.
Last year, 1.2 million tons of blocks
crossed the Italian border
to China, the United States,
and Germany as the top three.
The marble that stays
goes to local businesses
and artisanal workshops,
which are distributed
along the coastal towns
of western Tuscany.
Standing out is the town of Pietrasanta,
or the "City of Marble," called so
because of its continuous flow of artists.
Unlike foreign companies
who seek the most luxurious slab,
artisans in Pietrasanta are
looking for the perfect stone
to bring to life, as
Michelangelo used to say.
Claudia: The Cervietti workshops sculpt
around 200 tons of marble per year.
Claudia: Be it in its raw or refined form,
Carrara marble is scattered all over.
It's not an infinite resource,
and it will eventually run out.
And when that time comes,
statues, palaces, tiles, and
monuments around the globe
will forever carry
a piece of the marble
mountains of Tuscany.
