Friday 16th May (By Leon)

Today we decided to travel back to Carrara and go in search of Casa di Michelangelo Buonorotti. Our guide book had told us that the house Michelangelo lived in while sourcing marble could be found in the Piazza at Carrara, and you could also view some of the tools he used for collecting and sculpting marble. The weather was looking ominous with a cloudy sky, but we decided to go anyway and to take a route through Garfagnana and the Alpi Aquane ranges. Garfagnana is a valley that runs north between two steep mountain ranges and marks the beginning of the Alpine ski area’s for the north western Tuscan region. The area is dotted on either side of the valley with tiny villages, that all have their own church with a bell tower, and seem to hang off the side of the mountains defying gravity in the process. One has to concentrate heavily on the driving here as it is a common truck route and the roads don’t seem wide enough for two cars to pass, so the trucks give little moments of heart failure and sudden pauses in your forward motion, add this to the impossibly gorgeous scenery and you have a recipe for some very tense moments in the car.

Our first scheduled stop was at a shopping centre in Barga, we had discovered on a previous outing that the Gelato here was the best in Tuscano and we now always stop if we are in vicino (near), that done we pressed on up the valley this time negotiating the driving with a delicious gelato as well. Our route was to turn west at Castelnuovo di Garfagnana (try saying that pissed) and head off in the general direction of the coast. Castelnuovo was a beautiful hilltop village with rivers on both side of the town, the streets were only wide enough for one vehicle despite being a truck route and the architecture was mainly of the stone medieval type.

The road out led us up a very nice green and leafy valley that steadily rose and wound its way up alongside a river, giving way to vista’s of tiny villages and the odd banjo playing academy in the middle of nowhere. I could not shake the feeling that anytime now we would breakdown and be rescued by an interesting character with dueling banjo’s playing on his Ipod. ( definitely deliverance country) I was thinking I should practice my piggy squeals just in case.

But we made it safely through and even Karen had turned an eerie shade of green, she was either getting motion sickness from the bends or we were travelling through national park? We climbed steadily upwards and the leafy green soon gave way to rock and baron earth. Before we realized it we were at the top of the mountain and the temperature had dropped from 21 to 12 degrees. We were now in the marble mountains near Carrara, The guide book tells us that this area is the oldest continuous industrial zone in the world, and the site where Michelangelo sourced the marble for his statue of David in 1504. The colossal statue of the biblical hero who was responsible for the killing of the giant Goliath, is 17 ft tall (5.2M) and stands nude in the Galleria dell’ Accademia in Florence. Michelangelo was 29 when he carved it, and, having seen where he got the stone from I bet he was cursing David for killing the Giant as he would have come in handy for getting the stone, once tamed of course!

The mountains sit high above Carrara and command a very good view of the Ligurian sea to the west, allegedly, as we were in white out conditions and given the marble was white it all blended very well. Never the less we were able to marvel at the feet of mining 20 foot chunks of stone without the use of truck or Makita power tools, and then of course you had to get the stuff to Carrara to carve it, truly amazing!

We stopped at various points where the weather opened to reveal a Kodak moment and on one such occasion I entered one of the abandoned mining huts to take a snap; OH MIO DIO, I was immediately reminded of the fact that Italy never provides more than one toilet per 10000 head of population, as, as soon as I entered the hut my nostrils were assaulted by the stench of the biggest freshest human Doo Do I had ever encountered, now I have to say, that after 25 + years in the health industry I have come across some pretty impressive doo do, but this one had me all wide eyed and bushy tailed and so I took the snap and got the flock outa there, upon getting back in the car neither of the girls believed me about my encounter, and, neither would go and check it out for themselves. With the cold fresh breeze in my face and a foul after taste on my senses we started down the mountain.

The drive down was as beautiful as it was confronting, with vistas to die for and cliffs that would help you achieve it, we twisted and turned down the mountain through tiny villages that appeared to be glued to the mountain side rather than built on it.

We arrived in Carrara just before Siesta finished and took the opportunity to check out the local school of art and the interesting shops and Piazza in the town, after an exhaustive search we finally found Casa di Michelangelo, it was now converted to shops and apartments, though we were able to view his tools, they were stuck on the wall next to the plaque on the front of the building, the house was very ordinary and we had walked past a few times in our search to find it.

The sun was starting to peer out from behind the clouds and so we decided to partake of an Aperitivi prior to our return on the Autostrade. We sat down in the Piazza at Leon di Oro Bar, (Leon of Gold) very appropriate I thought, and enjoyed some drinks that were served with five or six differing types of nibblies, we sat and watched the passeggiata; this seems to occur around six PM when the locals come to the Piazza to meet and greet and catch up on the day’s events, it is a charming custom and makes the sport of people watching all that much more interesting.