Day 11 was taking us to Liguria and the coast of Italy. We departed from Lucca and first made our way to the town of Carrara. We switched to a small bus and met our local guide, Anna, before heading up into the mountains to see the marble quarries.
We stopped at the marble museum (Museo Civico del Marmo) to learn about all the ways that they have used to cut and transport marble from the quarries. We were even able to see the quarry where Michelangelo would come to pick his marble for sculpting. While at the museum, we had a bit of an unexpected shock, when some dynamite was blasted where a new quarry is being built. There was lots of dust and debris flying around on the mountain, but we were all a safe distance away. Click the pictures below to enlarge. Some are taken from the bus, so not as clear as others. |
After the quarries, we got back on our big spacious bus and continued on to the town of Porto Venere. We had a bit of free time here to enjoy lunch with a view before we boarded our boat to tour the Cinque Terre. To the right is the Snapchat video I sent to my coworkers back home working. I'm sure they were really annoyed with today's pictures since they were in landlocked Illinois.
Click the pictures below to enlarge. |
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We departed our boat in the last Cinque Terre town of Monterosso. We had some free time to walk around the town and see some of the sights. I visited the Church of St. John the Baptist and walked around the town for a bit before enjoying some gelato and sitting on a bench near the beach.
The group reassembled and we walked to the train station before catching our train to Levanto. |