Excerpts from Eric Scigliano's "Michelangelo's Mountain"
“(Robert Gove is) ...perhaps the only Californian ever to make a successful transformation into ‘Carrarino’, a Virgil on a Vespa, and a wise, indefatigable guide.”
“Quarriers have tunneled beneath the mountains and dug out underground gallerie(s) the size of stadiums...
In the old days, ...this (dangerous) work precipitated the evolution of... daredevil specialists... The danger and the (pride in)... these jobs shaped a culture that still sets Carrara apart from the rest of the world—and, it often seems, from ordinary reality.”
“Even some of its streets and...downtown sidewalks are paved with smooth bianco di Carrara marble...”
“The Torrente Carrione, which runs... from the cave through the city’s heart, is a watery museum of quarry waste... After a surge, small boulders cover its bed and sometimes yield treasures.”
