Indeed, the marble caves and the business of this mineral, is a big thing here near Carrara (from here the name Marmo di Carrara). The controversial part comes when you realize that all these mines are inside of a Regional Park. Very Weird!!

My ride was for the majority on tarmac, apart the last bit, already inside the caves, where I was on a unpaved trail.

For that reason, I decided to use my gravel bike, which equipped with Classified Power Hub allowed me to have a 29-34 as lightest gear.

Very handy indeed when you tackle a 20km no stop climb.

Starting from sea level I finished at almost 1400m above everything, including clouds.

I leave you with these images without going any further.

Hope you enjoy them and you can get the feeling of what it was for me being up there.

I planned this ride quite long time ago and when the opportunity finally came, I could not miss the appointment.

The last ride of 2021 had to be a special one. Indeed it was one to remember.

The Alpi Apuane at the border between Liguria and Toscana are surely one of the nicest and most scenic spots in the whole Italy, but also one of the places where there is the biggest percentage to find a rainy day in the country. and a very controversial one, because of the marble caves.

This fantastic location has always been at the focus of a controversial debates due to the vast human intervention which drastically changed the profile of the mountain.