You know it is time to replan when you get this message:
Dear Guest, I inform you that tomorrow there is bad weather alert in the region Liguria. We inform you that all the restaurants and shops will remain closed except for the restaurant.... So, no hiking or swimming—instead of feeling sorry for ourselves and eating the only food we had left ( cold cereal and no milk) we decided take a train into one of the nearby towns. Ever since we learned that Michelangelo personally chose the marble he sculpted from Carrara we have wanted to visit the quarry. It is only 40 km from here—seems easy, right? Well, we took two trains to Carrara and a bus to the central bus station. From there no bus travels into the mountains—oops! Off to the tourist office—closed. By now we have walked miles and are completely lost. Next thought—there’s the Police Station...they will help us! And they did—they were amazing. They got a taxi to pick us up from the station and drive us up the mountain. Now, mind you the taxi driver charged us almost twice what he was supposed to. That took most of our money; so we were going to have to walk all the way down which was about five miles, but we didn’t care because we had seen these amazing Marble Quarries by 4x4. Things just got better and better. A couple of really nice German tourists picked us up part way and dropped us off at a grocery store back in Carrara. We took the train home to Manarola and are enjoying a quiet evening snacking on M&M’s in our comfy little room. Sometimes almost disasters make the best travel stories. You are Always in My Prayers. Love Mom.
31 Comments
Xavier
10/12/2018 09:00:36 am
What storms and how bad are the storms there
Reply
Diane
10/14/2018 12:18:45 am
Rain, thunder, lightening, and strong winds—be for area that easily suffers from flooding that is bad weather. It also means they have to haul all the boats out of the water.
Reply
sophia
10/12/2018 09:15:02 am
were you really worried when you got lost or were you trying to keep your calm?
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:33:30 am
In a way we were not totally lost. Google maps was available and I was using it. The frustration was with the inability to find an easy and reasonably priced way to get to our goal. I think we were concerned we would have to head back to our apartment without seeing the quarry.
Reply
NathanC?
10/12/2018 09:18:30 am
Was it beautiful🙃
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:35:26 am
Yes, in a rather strange other worldly way. Picture tall scrub covered mountains with half the mountain cut away showing white to grey coloured marble.
Reply
tia
10/12/2018 09:26:43 am
wow sounds like a big hassle! i bet it was worth it though. how did they get all that marble out? seems hard!
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:40:37 am
In the video you can see a truck loaded with big blocks. They also truck out small gravel like pieces of marble to be ground into marble powder. They are close to the coast (Port Carrara) so they can ship it world wide bt ship.
Reply
Maddie
10/12/2018 09:28:19 am
When you got lost did you get scared? Before you went to the police station
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:41:37 am
Not scared, just frustrated at not being able to make things work.
Reply
katie
10/12/2018 09:28:46 am
what was the bad weather they were calling for?
Reply
Diane
10/14/2018 12:19:49 am
Rain, thunder, lightening, and strong winds—be for area that easily suffers from flooding that is bad weather. And of course if the boats can’t help with things you can’t open things.
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:42:11 am
A full day of thunderstorms with winds and rain.
Reply
keenan
10/12/2018 09:30:44 am
when you got lost on a scale of 1-10 how scared were you
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:43:19 am
Not scared just very frustrated. (Maybe a 8 on frustration😄).
Reply
maddie.e
10/12/2018 09:36:07 am
were you upset that there was a bad weather alert ?
Reply
Diane
10/14/2018 12:20:57 am
A little. If I was at home and they said snow day I would know wha5 it meant, but I didn’t quite know what a storm day was here.
Reply
Nathan T
10/12/2018 09:39:00 am
that sounds very adventurous
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:44:51 am
Most of our travel is fairly planned before we leave Canada. Sometime you just have to embrace changes and enjoy a new unplanned adventure.
Reply
Fatimao
10/12/2018 09:48:40 am
What weather storm was it?
Reply
Diane
10/14/2018 12:21:33 am
Rain, thunder, lightening, and strong winds—be for area that easily suffers from flooding that is bad weather. The water wa# really choppy.
Reply
Jill
10/12/2018 09:55:51 am
That sucks! I’m glad you made the best of it though
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:47:03 am
Yes at first it was upsetting about the weather but then we managed to fit in the quarry visit. It had been on our list in 2014 when we visited Italy but had not been able to make it work on that trip.
Reply
Jayla
10/12/2018 10:02:46 am
were you scared
Reply
Ray
10/14/2018 05:47:24 am
No, just very frustrated.
Reply
Jadyn
10/12/2018 10:05:25 am
how bad will the weather be?
Reply
Diane
10/14/2018 12:17:53 am
Rain, thunder, lightening, and strong winds—be for area that easily suffers from flooding that is bad weather.
Reply
Jojo
10/14/2018 06:39:54 pm
Wow, this sounds like one of our adventures! You guys did make the best of it! The pictures and videos are so beautiful! See y’all soon!❤️ Ciao!!
Reply
Diane
10/14/2018 10:31:16 pm
You guys are used to flood days😄....looking forward to seeing everyone. D
Reply
Tyler
10/15/2018 05:31:57 am
The quarries look awesome, about how tall do you think the marble walls were.
Reply
Diane
10/15/2018 09:57:17 am
They are as tall as the Mountain. They are allowed to take away from the sides but not change the shape or height of the mountain. It is an environmental thing.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Details
Ray & Diane
|