Carrara Marble Day
They did not have any marble garden gnomes! Really unbelievable.
This was a great excursion through the port and city of Carrara, and up the mountain to one of the few interior marble quarries (most are typical outside quarry operations). Michelangelo picked out his stuff just around the corner at a quarry that caters exclusively to the statuary trade, due to the purity of the marble found there.
Fun fact: the entire mountain is marble. No other kind of rocks.
Tunnel to get to the interior of the quarry
The quarry shown below is no longer an active section. They have to leave very large pillars a certain distance apart, and are restricted as to how high and how low they can excavate.
All the marble is cut to order, which is why you see the lines for different sizes of blocks on the ceiling and sides.
Another finished section
Also, Michelangelo has been replaced, which is too damn bad:
