Steve

Yes it are very right. But my vineyards are named after a nearby hill, Carrara Hill, which was itself named after the famous town and area in Tuscany. A stone quarry on the hill was probably the connection in the name.

I was lucky to visit Carrara last year and also Colonnata. Colonnata was just by chance as it was the easiest town to get to by bus from Carrara. We were staying in the Cinque Terre in Liguria but had to visit Carrara and the marble quarries as we were so close. After several train connections, some walking and a couple of buses we made it into the mountains. Getting back was left to chance and by luck we managed to catch one of the last public buses. Didn't really want to walk down the mountain to Carrara even thoough it was downhill all the way

The stone quarries really do look like snowy peaks from the distance and the huge white marble blocks at the train yards are impressive.

If I lived in Europe (or again) I would definitely have bought some of the large and impressive marble carvings in the local shops. I was lucky as I was looking for a particular theme and if I found it would have bought and then had the trouble of dealing with getting it back to Aus. So I just bought some small pieces instead.

Talking about Lard and Colonnata. Perhaps you can reveal to me about the attraction. Walking through Colonnata I started to notice the number of "larderiums" and actually joked about them and started to take photos of them - ie for a photo album "here is a larderium", "here is another ..... and another ... and another". In fact Ithink there was five or seven in the town square alone. I said to Christine "I think we are missing something here, this seems to be a pilgrims mecca for lard !" We had heard of nothing like this before but from the town there was obviously something famous about it.

So I would be interested if you could reveal more on the ancient method of preparing lard as you mention. Perhaps a secret Italian cooking method.

What makes it so good?

Is there any connection between the word Colonnata and "Colonary" ?

The mountains of the region looked very interesting in a wild way. And from the guidebooks sounded quite untouristy still.

PS I was also pleased to see NO vineyards in the Carrara area. My previous research also showed no evidence of wine designations with the name Carrara. As I didn't want to have to change a wine label one day due to GIC regulations. I think this is true ?