Anybody been to Carrara or others? What'd you think?

In terms of what? I've been there. Do you have specific questions?

What are you interested in? I found the quarries to be interesting because I like geology. They look identical to the opening scenes of "the Agony and the Ecstasy" with Charlton Heston. From a distance the mountains look snow covered, but as you drive closer you can see tha marble quarries and talus slopes. You can easily drive up to the top and park and walk over and see the quarries in operation. There are lots of shops along the way that sell all sorts of marble object, not all from Cararra though. Only the white and brown steaked marble is Cararra. There are lots of free specimens along the side of the road. I went once, it was enough.

I've also visited the quarries, and found it an interesting one-time detour. The mountains do look snow-capped. I bought a small pyramid of polished marble, and I keep it sitting next to a marble chip that I picked up off the side of the road (with several other tons of marble dust and rocks). <BR> <BR>It's worth the trip if you like rocks and/or Michelangelo - I wanted to see the places where he got his marble from.

An incredible sight is the quarries from a heliocopter. You'd swear they were snow covered! As others have said, it's an interesting detour but don't plan to stay there. There are some great places to stay in the area, however. Forte dei Marmi is a rather posh beach town just south of Massa and then south of that is Viareggio, a big beach town. You will not be far from Lucca either. There's a beautiful and small Relais et Chateaux nearby as well.

definitly worth a side trip to see the set up. there is a very good museum in the town that deals with the history of the quarry but the captions are all in italian. if you drive watch out for the trucks comming down from the quarries loaded. they travel fast and with abandon. hope you go there

Fun area to see one time. <BR> <BR>We have friends that just completed a very expensive, custom home with a lot of marble. It was fun to visit this area and find that the marble the friends used in their home was exactly what was used in an outdoor toilet with wooden door. We took a picture for them to see what a classy choice they had made. <BR> <BR> The shops have some nice things, but I can attest, they are heavy to take home. We bought some great bookends, small box and a few gifts. <BR> <BR>You do not need to make this a major journey. Drive up, take a look and continue on.

I'm going to differ with the other post. We did a day trip to Carrera from Florence and were very dissapointed. It may have been just an off day but we had our only dissapointing meal at a restaurant on the coast. We had hoped to dine while looking at the water but all the restuarants put tons of umbrellas between you and the water making it difficult to see anything else. The quarries (from a distance) were fascinating but we didn't take the tour. We were there in early June and it was much hotter there than any other place we visited. <BR> <BR>We had wished that we had used the extra day in Florence. Carrera is not a pretty place compared to the rest of your choices!

Thank you all. Is this little sidetrip possible without a car? Perhaps a bus tour?

As the last poster said the town of Carrara is not much to speak of, and the road to the quarries is narrow and windy. I do not imagine it is a spot for tour buses, although I am not certain. We did it my private car from Florence on Monday (when stuff was shut)

Agreed with others that this is an interesting detour --- should definitely have seen the finished products in Rome & Florence before a visit to Carrara. The city itself isn't much, although I did see in the Tuscany guidebook that we consulted there is a sculpture contest that goes thru the summer/fall that sounded as it would add an interesting element to see folks working with the marble. <BR> <BR>And for those that make the drive up the road to the quarries (follow signs that say Cave di Marmo, I think), there's a tiny village called Colonnata. This sounds less than palatable, but one of the unique "culinary treats" in Colonnata is "lardo" --- yes, I ate a thin slice of lard on bread & it was rather tasty. Apparently they stash the lard in the mines for six months (it's salted/peppered) and guess that the storage process completes the 'curing'. <BR>