Marble

Carrara is known for its marble. Because of them nearby towns are decorated with stunning marble sculptures. Today we were given the opportunity to visit Pietrasanta and its sculpting studio. There we learned about how marble sculpture is created. Our guide explained that people come here for weeks and months at a time to sculpt marble and if they do not have money for a hotel or an apartment they provide a small room for them for free. The sculptures start with a small piece of marble and it is carved, shaped, and more marble is add to it until it looks the way the artist intends for it to. Today there were many artists there working on their sculptures. One artist explained her work to us. She was making the human anatomy. She explained that she received her inspiration from studying about anatomy. She thought it was a beautiful thing and wanted to sculpt it. Her first sculpture only took her a few weeks but the one she was currently working on will take a matter of months. These artists have to have a great deal of patience to work so long on these sculptures but I am sure the feeling they have when they complete it is great. Next we went inside the building. It was filled with sculptures people had done in the past. They were beautiful. One artist had sculpted a model of an entire city. There were so many details I can’t imagine how long that must have taken. Our guide allowed us to go upstairs to see their living quarters. Upon reaching the top of the stairs the air was filled with a spectacular aroma. They were preparing a lunch for the entire artist so they could eat together. I loved the strong feel of family they had even though none of them were related.  It just goes to show that family is not always what we are born into but it can also be what we make it. Shortly thereafter we left the sculpting studio and visited the marble quarries. There we were able to learn about where the marble came from. The mountains were white like snow but it was not snow it was marble. We climbed a steep hill to get to the next guide. He explained the process of producing the marble. His grandfather used to cut the marble out of the mountain and now he does so also. It was a fascinating process to see how they cut out tons of marble from a mountain and moved it down the mountain to be manufactured. After leaving the quarries we travelled back to Pietrasanta for lunch and to visit a few churches. The first church we entered was stunning. The celling was painted; there was painting of angels and Biblical scenes on the wall, and wooden pews. The next church we went was much darker. The paintings were of hell and an obese Virgin Mary. I appreciate the art but it was not my style for sure.