Marble tour Colonnata's lard
Visiting a marble quarry is a unique experience, thanks to the wonderful scenery offered by the Apuan Alps.
An extremely valuable chalky rock, Apuan marble has been extracted since the early Copper Age, but the first real use of the quarries dates back to the times of the Roman Empire. Since then marble has been used in many ways, from the crafting of simple objects to the most famous art & architecture masterpieces.
Michelangelo Bonarroti spent entire days on the asymmetric steps of the quarries to carefully select the raw material of his sculptures (for example his "David") and found inspiration for his creations there.
A visit to the town of Colonnata, an ancient village sorrounded by marble quarries deep in the heart of the Apuan alps, is a MUST in this tour.
Colonnata is famous for an important product: the preparation of a typical kind of lard with a peculiar and unique tasting.
The making of lard has a long history in Colonnata since it represented one of the main foods of the quarry workers: spending many days in isolated caves, they used to store it in marble bowls covered by layers of sea salt, milled black pepper, fresh garlic, rosemary and sage.
This was an effective way to preserve it's freshness and still keeping the lard in a perfect state of maturation.
Colonnata lard is a gastronomical speciality known worldwide, an exquisite experience for your taste merged with the history of Carrara marble quarries, the city in which this product is nowadays done and conserved following an ancient recipe survived in time.
In this trip that takes us back in time we couldn't avoid to present you a noble local wine of old origins, the "Vermentino" of Luni.
h.9.30 Leaving from Lucca
h.10.30 Arrival at the Fantiscritti quarry: museum & quarry visit. It will last one hour and a half.
h.12.00 Leaving from the quarry
h.12.15 Arrival in the Colonnata: wine tasting in the typical and traditional Larderia (lard factory)
h.13.00 Lunch in a typical restaurant in Colonnata and a visit of the countryside
h.15.00 leaving from Colonnata
h.16.00 Arrival at the Farm Lunae. Gastronomical tasting.
h.17.30 End of tour and return.
COMPLETE LIST