Day trip to the Carrara marble quarries & Lardo di Colonnata from Florence

Quick Facts

Duration: 7 hours

Location: Carrara & Colonnata, Tuscany

Group size: max 8 people

Age: 8+

Includes: luxury transport from Florence, expert guide, visit to a family Lardo di Colonnata producer, tasting of cured meats and cheeses, visit to Colonnata town, marble quarry scenic drive (April–October)

Optional add-ons: 4×4 quarry adventure, stop in Pisa, traditional Tuscan lunch

Price: from €280 per person (groups of 5–8) · €315 (groups of 3–4) · €450 (1–2 people)

Departure: Florence

This is a private tour. Only your group will participate.

This full-day tour takes you from Florence to two of Tuscany’s least-visited and most extraordinary places: the white marble quarries of Carrara and the hilltop village of Colonnata, home of Lardo di Colonnata DOP — one of Italy’s most unique and protected food products. You drive through the marble mountains, visit a family producer who still cures lardo in marble basins using a centuries-old method, and taste the result paired with handmade cured meats, local cheeses and wine.

What you will experience

A scenic drive through the Carrara marble quarries — the same stone used by Michelangelo

Visit to the hilltop village of Colonnata, carved into the marble mountains

Private visit to a family-run Lardo di Colonnata DOP producer

Tasting of Lardo di Colonnata, handmade cured meats, local cheeses and wine

Insight into the marble curing process — the marble basins used to age the lardo are the same material extracted from the mountains above

Option to add a 4×4 adventure inside the quarries (on request)

Who is this tour for

Food lovers curious about rare and protected Italian products (DOP)

Travelers who want to go beyond the standard Tuscany wine tour circuit

Architecture and art enthusiasts — Carrara marble is the material behind Michelangelo’s David and countless masterpieces of Renaissance sculpture

Small groups and couples looking for an exclusive, off-the-beaten-track day

Curious eaters who want to understand where Italian food traditions actually come from

Most visitors to Tuscany never make it to Carrara or Colonnata. The marble quarries are one of the most visually dramatic landscapes in Italy — mountains that appear snow-white from a distance because they are pure marble all the way through. Colonnata sits directly above them, a village whose most famous product is Lardo di Colonnata DOP: pork fat cured in hand-carved marble basins with local herbs and sea salt, protected by European law for its historical and geographical significance. This is not a product you find in most restaurants. This tour takes you to the family who makes it.

Why Lardo di Colonnata is not just pork fat

Lardo di Colonnata DOP is one of the most misunderstood Italian delicacies. It is the fatback of the pig, cured in basins carved from the same Carrara marble that surrounds the village. The marble’s natural temperature and mineral properties are essential to the curing process — it cannot be replicated elsewhere, which is why it holds DOP status. Sliced thin, it melts at room temperature and has a silky, aromatic depth that is nothing like ordinary lard. It has been made in Colonnata for centuries, long before Michelangelo was quarrying marble a few kilometres below.