DAY 4 - MARBLE, LARD, AND THE CINQUE TERRE FROM THE SEA

THURSDAY - 4 SEPTEMBER 2014 - CARRARA, COLONNATA, PORTOVENERE, AND CINQUE TERRE


Carrara

A remarkably pleasant drive on an excellent toll road from Florence brought us to the mountain range outside the town of Carrara in Liguria. What is remarkable about these mountains is that they are literally made of marble. Huge slabs of this almost perfect compressed calcium carbonate (same chemical as Tums but in various colors, not flavors) have been mined here since Roman times, making the Carrara marble quarries the oldest continuously operated industrial site in the world.

 

Tauck came through again with a truly unique four wheel drive tour of the steep mountain side working quarries. As far as I could tell, we were the only tourists riding amidst and walking near the huge trucks and machinery. We were not issued hard hats and steel tipped shoes, but then neither were the workers. We stopped at a number of working areas high up above the Port of Luni where the stones are shipped world wide, including the actual quarry where Michelangelo got his huge stone and removed that which was not David. This was perhaps the highlight of the entire Tauck Culturious Tour in many ways.


Colonnata

This is the lard capital of the world. We had lunch in the Lardarium. This restaurant was not kosher. Colonnata Lard is creamy and salty. One spreads it on bread or eats it in little cubes. The guide explained that the processing of this pure fat makes it "low in cholesterol and actually good for you". I almost believed it until she said that the processing consisted entirely of adding great quantities of salt.


Portovenere

After our healthful lunch we headed around the huge harbor of La Spezia to the lovely peninsula town of Portovenere where we walked off the most beneficial aspects of said lunch by climbing to the 13th Century Gothic San Pietro Church. This church can be seen far out to sea where sailors for a millenium could only dream of lard.


Boat Ride to the Cinque Terre

The final destination of today's journey was Monterorroso al Mare, the uno terre of the five towns that make up this cliffside group of ex-fishing villages. Unfortunately, since Rick Steve publicized them as "unknown", now these small towns are very touristy and crowded. But they are spectacular nevertheless. In Tauck style, we made the last part of the journey to Monterorroso from Portovenere by ferry, stopping in the four towns of the group that have usable landing spots. I took pictures from the Ligurian Sea of each town as we approached or passed. Riomaggiore (above) is the 5th and most southern town of the Cinque Terre and the one we hoped to reach via train and the famed Via dell'Amore path later the next day during our afternoon free time.

At long last we arrived at the uno terre, Monterroso al Mare, the largest town and northernmost of the group. We caught our first glimpse of Hotel Porto Roca, our home for the next two nights, perched on the cliff visible to the right as we approached the small harbor. We also noticed the long climb to the hotel, visible in the picture as the steep path on the top of the cliffs diagonally above the boardwalk path from the town beneath the hotel. Note the train that connects the five towns, at left, which we planned to take the next day.