Pietrasanto/ Cararra

["dondougan@zzzzzzzz" <dondougan@zzzzzzzz>]

Hi Clive,

I've only been to Carrara on day trips with the students when I am teaching sculpture in Cortona (in eastern Tuscany), so I unfortunately never get to spend much time there.  Because of the long bus ride to and from Carrara from Cortona, we only have about six hours there, and part of that is during siesta-time (after lunch) which means things are closed.

What we have usually done is visit Nocoli's studio in downtown Carrara:

SICMAS CARRARA
Via XXVII Aprile 8 / V
Carrara, Italy
phone:	0585 70079
owner:	Carlo Nicoli

3rd generation stone-carving studio -- Carlo's daughter works in the office, and she is often the one answering the telephone.  Both she and her father speak English.  Nicoli usually will show you around, but he is also trying to drum up your business.

In addition to his studio work (he does the enlarging and carving from maquettes for those artists who don't want to do that work themselves -- I have seen them working on numerous Louise Bourgeois, Antoine Poncet, Guiliango Vangi works for instance), but he usually has several studio spaces rented to sculptors from all over who can have the use his big equipment when needed, but otherwise do all there own work.  You may run into one who speaks English and has the inclination to spend some time talking.

After that we drive up to the 'cave' (the Italian word that literally means the caves or quarries).  Though you can drive up to a general area where there is a gift shop and little museum of quarrying, to actually go inside one of the many 'cave' you have to arrange it before hand through one of the owner/operators -- access will also depend on the type of work being done that day in the surrounding quarries -- and how recently there has been a serious injury or death in an accident on the mountain.  There are general safety restrictions about visitors that all the quarries must comply with, though the rules have some flexibility that each owner/operator can (or does) bend 'under-the-table' . . .

We (the Studies Abroad Program) have usually paid for a 'guide' through Nicoli to ride with us on our school's bus up to a specific cave . . . but even then we (the trips I have made with my sculpture students) have only gotten inside the underground quarries once out of perhaps six or seven visits over the last twelve years.  But even if you don't get inside the views are breathtaking.

We usually eat lunch at the little restaurant about a block from Nicoli's studio (sorry, can't remember the name) that Nicoli and his workers often frequent.  The owner speaks almost no English, but just order the pasta of the day and you'll enjoy it!

After lunch we drive to Biacchi to buy some tools (even though it is siesta, there are usually one or two salesmen around), and by 3:30pm or so heading back for the 3-1/2 hour long bus ride back to Cortona for dinner.

Luciano BAICCHI
Via Pisa, 8
54033 Fossola-Carrara
PHONE: (0585)841541 - or 841841
FAX: (0585)841047
web: http://www.baicchiluciano.com/index.html
e-mail:	info@baicchiluciano

I have seen the signs for a museum of marble in Carrara, but with the Program's tight schedule have never been able to visit it.  There is also the Academia, the school there in Carrara where locals study anatomy, design, etc.  The fountain out in front is worth a gander or two.

The beaches are always the biggest pull for the students -- they sometimes cut Friday or Monday classes and take the train for long weekends there on the Italian Riviera.

Hope that these sketchy notes help you.

Good Carving to You,
Don

Don Dougan
http://www.dondougan.homestead.com/indexdd.html