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The Romans called it marmor lumensis, referring to the port of Luni in Liguria that managed its commercial trade during its most flourishing years. Today, Carrara marble is one of the most prized in the world, a true raw diamond that, over the centuries, has inspired the finest generations of sculptors.  But what is the origin of such grandeur and...

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"Is that snow?" my partner said one morning during a summer Mediterranean cruise as we opened our cabin's curtains to see a wide view of the Apuan Alps in Carrara, Italy. "No, it's marble," I said, smiling, because if I hadn't done my research, I would have thought the same thing. The mountain range is home to the marble basin of Carrara in Tuscany...

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A remarkable innovation is changing the way timeless art is created. For centuries, Italy's world-famous Carrara marble has been used to make some of the most iconic sculptures in history. It was the marble that iconic artists include Michelangelo and Canova spent hundreds of hours turning into masterpieces. Now, it is also the marble wrought into...

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Carrara, in northern Tuscany, is built along a river below the famous marble quarries that have been in use since Roman times and where famous Renaissance sculptors such as Michelangelo sourced their marble. Carrara is not only known as the city of marble but also as the birthplace of anarchism in Italy (in late 19th century) and it still remains a...

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The Italian economy has received the shellacking of a generation over the last two years. 1.2 million jobs were lost, a third of Italians experienced a loss of income, and nearly 700,000 small and midsize businesses are still at risk of bankruptcy. There are few bright spots on the Italian economic horizon right now, with Milan’s FTSE MIB stock mar...

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For centuries, the massive marble quarries above the Tuscan city of Carrara have provided the raw material for the polished masterpieces of Italian sculptors such as Michelangelo, Canova, Bernini and, more recently, ABB2. Carving with pinpoint precision, and at least some of the art style of its more celebrated (and human) predecessors, ABB2, a 13-...

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AT FIRST GLANCE, THE APUAN Alps of northwest Tuscany’s Carrara region are pure white. Alison Leitch first saw them from a train window when traveling through Italy in the early 1980s. From a distance, she writes, their dazzling tops looked like snow. Her seatmate told her otherwise: The blinding whiteness was actually marble dust, a powdery byprodu...

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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 Michelagelo's iconic statue, David. The luxury stone comes the Apuan Alps, a mountain range in northern Tuscany that stretches for 58 km a...

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There’s now a museum nestled within the heart of the quarries. It allows people to take a tour and explore the quarries to learn about the history of how the stone was excavated, as well as its use in art and architecture. Inside the museum, you can find huge, beautiful sculptures made from the very stone that surrounds the site. People have been t...

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The Italian cities of Milan, (literature), Alba (gastronomy), Pesaro (music) and Carrara (crafts) were among 64 cities from 44 countries to join UNESCO's list of creative cities Tuesday. Milan joined a literature circuit that includes Dublin, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Prague and Baghdad. The new entries raised to nine the number of Italian cities on th...

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