How to get to Carrara marble quarries - CTTours - Carrara

29Mar

How to get to Carrara marble quarries

By: umberto On: 29 March 2020 In: marble stories Comments: 0

Have you ever visited the Carrara marble quarries? Did you know that Carrara is UNESCO City for the Creativity?

Here you will find useful information to reach and explore the marble quarries of Carrara and its territory. Do you travel to Carrara by train, car, motorbike, camper, coach? No problem, here you find the right route for every type of vehicle.

Sometimes the tourists who come to Carrara tell me that they had problems finding the right direction for the marble mines or the historic center of Carrara, or they put Massa-Carrara together as if they were a single town. It’s all understandable, Carrara is worldwide famous for its white marble, but much less popular as a tourist destination.

Where is Carrara?

Carrara is located by the sea along the coast of northern Tuscany, across the boundary of Tuscany and Liguria, traveling on the A12 (motorway) between Viareggio and La Spezia you note the marble quarries that stretch for about 3 km on the side of the Apuan Alps.

How to get to Carrara?

How to reach the Carrara marble caves, how to reach Carrara town center with the various means of transport available. Carrara is in a strategic position, within one-hour journey there are many interesting tourist destinations: Cinque Terre, Portofino, Genoa, Viareggio and Versilia, Lucca, Pisa, Florence. The Carrara marble quarries are located behind Carrara, the so-called marble basins are divided into three main valleys: Torano, Fantiscritti and Colonnata.

Airplane. Carrara is quite close to three airports: Pisa 40 minutes, Florence 1 hour, Genoa 1 hour away. Milan Malpensa is 3.5 hours, Rome Fiumicino 4.5 hours away.
Car. Carrara has the highway exit along the A12 Genova-Livorno highway. From the toll booth to Carrara center it takes about 20 minutes, if you continue towards the marble quarries, consider another 20/25 minutes drive. Notice that Massa and Carrara are two separate exits, if you come from Tuscany the GPS will tell you to exit at Massa and not at Carrara.
Train. Carrara is well served by the railway, it can be reached by taking the Genoa-La Spezia-Pisa-Florence or Milan-Parma-Potremoli-Pisa-Livorno-Rome line. Line buses run from the station.
Public bus. To reach the historic center of Carrara or Marina di Carrara there are numerous rides per day available on bus 52. Here you find the timetable. Once you arrive in Carrara, to go to the marble quarries there is only bus 50 to Colonnata only. The Municipality plans to upgrade the bus lines connecting Carrara center with the two marble valleys of Fantiscritti and Colonnata.
Tourist-bus. Tourist buses can easily go up the marble valleys, the roads are asphalted and quite winding like normal mountain tracks. However, there are limitations related to the length of tourist buses: vehicles up to 12.50 m long they can climb both along the Fantiscritti and Colonnata valleys; vehicles with a length of 13-14 m. or double-deck can only go up along the Colonnata valley. Here you will find some itinerary suggestions. Notice, all tour buses must pay the access ticket of €50.00 if you have a tour guide on board, if you have a reservation in a hotel, restaurant, local museum. Otherwise, the cost of the ticket is €100.00. The bus ticket is paid at the check point which is located along Viale XX Settembre near the soccer/football stadium.