Carara

Today we visited Carara, the marble town where Michealangelo selected his marble to create the David. It was fascinating to see the quarries, one of which we had the opportunity to tour. We got to see the evolution of technology for the mining process and understand the politics and history behind it.

My dad works for a company that mines marble for calcium carbonate and has actually had a mine in Carara. I asked the owner of the mine if he had heard of the company and he said that the people of the town don't like that company. That is because this company uses the calcium carbonate for food, pharmaceuticals and other products such as paint and cardboard. The owner of the mine was saying that the members of the town want to see the marble used for floors, granite and artwork, not things like food and household products. I found this very interesting.

In town we saw student artists from the local university working on marble sculptures, that was so cool to see. I took a rock carving class at summer camp one year and we only carved the "softest" stone (limestone) and it was still much more difficult than I ever would have anticipated. And these students were carving marble, one of the hardest stones! I couldn't even imagine trying to do that myself.

Carara was such a lovely little town that contributed so much to Italy's lovely history that no one would expect.