Parco Regionale delle Alpi Apuane
Rising dramatically behind the Versilia coast, the Apuan Alps are a compact but genuinely wild mountain range where white marble peaks — the same quarries that supplied Michelangelo — tower above chestnut forests, glacial lakes and some of the deepest cave systems in the world.
Hiking the Marble Mountains
The classic walk is the ascent of Monte Pisanino (1,946 m), the range's highest peak, tackled from the Rifugio Donegani above Minucciano; the trail is well-marked and rewards you with views stretching from the Ligurian Sea to the Apennines.
A more accessible option is the Sentiero della Tagliata above Carrara, a 3-hour loop that passes active marble quarries where enormous white blocks are cut from the mountainside — the scale is staggering and the contrast between blinding white stone and dark forest is unlike anything else in Tuscany.
The park's river valleys hide swimming holes fed by crystal-clear mountain water; the Turrite Secca gorge near Castelnuovo di Garfagnana is a local favourite for summer bathing.
Carrara Marble and the Quarries
The quarries above Carrara have been worked continuously since Roman times and today produce around 700,000 tonnes of marble annually; you can join a guided jeep tour from Carrara town centre that takes you right into the working quarry basin — a lunar, blinding-white landscape that stops most visitors in their tracks.
The Museo Civico del Marmo in Carrara (Viale XX Settembre) tells the full story of the stone from Michelangelo's David to contemporary sculpture, with a remarkable collection of marble samples from across the world.
If you want to take a piece home, the workshops along Via Santa Maria in Carrara sell everything from small carved souvenirs to bespoke architectural pieces direct from the artisans.
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