Massa-Carrara

Massa-Carrara is the province that tells a single story in two voices: the voice of marble and the voice of the mountain. A geography squeezed between the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines and the sea, and sharply divided: to the south the Alpi Apuane with Massa and Carrara, the quarries, the industrial plain; to the north the Lunigiana with Pontremoli, Aulla, Bagnone and Fivizzano — another land, another time.

The Apuane are the raw material that gave this province its name in the world. The marble quarries have been worked since Roman times. The white of Carrara reached imperial Rome, the medieval cathedrals, the sculptures of Michelangelo, the monuments of Washington.

The city of Carrara grew up around marble, and with marble it built an entire chain: quarries, sawmills, sculpture workshops, art foundries, academies, international stone markets. The port of Marina di Carrara was built to export blocks.

To the north, beyond the Apuan ridge, the Lunigiana begins. A land of chestnut woods, Romanesque parish churches, watermills and medieval villages perched on the ridges. A rural and ancient geography, where agricultural know-how was never industrialised and where the produce — mushrooms, chestnuts, honey, cheeses — keeps qualities that elsewhere have been lost.

Between these two souls lies the coastal plain with Massa, Marina di Massa and Avenza. An area of services, of processing, of access to the sea. Every Tuscan province has a physiognomy of its own: Massa-Carrara is the one that carries marble in its surname.

The cooking of the province is twofold, like the territory. That of the Apuan coast has a soul of sea and of marble: poor but decisive dishes, fat enough to sustain the heavy work of the quarries. That of the Lunigiana is alpine, slow, vegetarian by origin and knowing by evolution.

Lardo di Colonnata IGP. Cured in troughs of white Apuan marble, seasoned with coarse salt, black pepper, rosemary and garlic. A food that the extreme labour of the quarrymen turned into world gastronomic heritage. It is eaten on warm bread, sliced as thin as a veil.

The testaroli of the Lunigiana. Thick pancakes cooked in testi of cast iron or terracotta, cut into diamonds and dressed with pesto, with sauce or with oil and parmesan. The emblematic dish of the Lunigiana. The artisan testarolo of Pontremoli is a Slow Food presidium.

The panigaccio of Podenzana. A thin wafer cooked between red-hot terracotta testi. Eaten with local cured meats, cheeses and simple sauces.

The mushrooms and chestnuts of the Lunigiana. Old chestnut woods that yield sweet flour for cakes, bread and polenta. Porcini, ovoli and chanterelles feed the autumn cooking of the upper Magra valley.

The torta d'erbi. A savoury tart of the Lunigiana made with wild greens — chard, borage, nettle, prebuggiun — rice and cheese. A poor tart that tells of centuries of subsistence cooking.

Wine. Candia dei Colli Apuani DOC gives whites and reds of character, in limited volumes. Vermentino dei Colli di Luni has an appellation that crosses the border into Liguria.

The sweets. Spongata di Pontremoli (a dry tart with candied fruit, honey and walnuts), amor di Pontremoli, chestnut cake.