As our bus began to climb the mountain out of the town of Carrara, we could see the marble quarries that looked like a snowfield in the distance.

We could see areas where quarrying had taken place.

We arrived at the central staging area for the quarries. Here are a number of blocks which have been cut and hauled to this point for some trimming. The saw which performed this task is just left of center.

Here the saw (a cable studded with industrial diamonds) is squaring up this block by trimming a triangular section from it. It is hard to see the cable (it is just below the small wheel on the left) but in the larger picture you can see where the water is being forced out at the cut. This cut was completed within 15 minutes.

Our local guide took us to see a museum of equipment which had been used in the past.

Most of the serious quarrying was done at a higher level. We could occasionally spot trucks driving down the switchbacks to the quarries.

After a short time of shopping in the marble souvenir shops there, we started back down the mountain. We did spot one area where quarrying was still taking place. In the larger picture, can you spot the three men working?

The trucks caried loads of about 20 tons. (Marble weighs about 3 tons a cubic yard.) In this case we were happy that the truck was in front of our bus rather than behind us!

It had been an interesting experience, but we were happy to back in Carrara and looking up at the area of the quarries.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Tuscany and were now looking forward to Liguria and what it had to offer along the Ligurian Sea. Our first stop will be in the seaside town of Lerici to take a boat along the Cinque Terre.