Colonnata (Massa-Carrara, Toscana)?

Last year in the second half of October my wife and I visited Colonnata. We picked up a rental car in La Spezia and drove around quarries above Carrara before heading to Lucca that evening. Interesting enough, it was the portion of the trip that we researched the least. In hind sight it was one of the portions we enjoyed the most - possibly because of the lack of planning. We stumbled upon Colonnata and found it very charming - not just because of the marble paved square and marble statuary but because of its location in amongst steep mountains sitting on a little bluff over looking a tight valley. I would definitely recommend it if you have the time. Also it is not very touristy - seemed to have more Italian tourists than other nationalities. If you like steep mountains, little towns sitting on ridge tops with good views plus the history of the marble quarries then this is the place for you. I wish we had spent more time in the area.

Thanks. It was on my target list and you just put a star next to it. If by chance you had some of their marble urn cured lardo I'd love to hear about it. Thanks again.

No, we didn't have any lardo. The sound of it turned my wife off. We joked walking around Colonnata when we saw the signs advertising "Laboratorios di Lardo". I'm sure it is good but the name is too close to "lard".

Yup. For me lardo sounded too much like Crisco. Then a friend made me eat lardo, made by experts, at a restaurant in SF. She had been to Colonnata. After I tried the SF version, I told her that it was like baby back ribs minus the meat and bones in other words just the really tasty mouthy watering fat, served on toast. She told me that I had just had the diet cola and that in Colonnata (and only there) they make the champagne. I'll let you know.