In the blinding reflection of the naked marble, which virtually prevents one from being able to see into the distance, down to the sea and coast of Versilia, every day the quarrymen - hard men, savage, with black faces, skinned by the sun, powdered with marble dust - risk their lives. A poorly placed mine, a chain from the machines which cut the marble that breaks, an out-of-control caterpillar, a foot placed carelessly that becomes a fall into nothingness. The population of Versilia and Garfagnana, the valley that runs along the north face of the Apuane, have always had to pay a very high price in human lives to the quarrying industry. A never-ending war between man and mountain that every year demands the payment of a painful tribute.

The environmental costs are also high, as the increasingly rapid and indiscriminate proliferation of the quarries in the whole area has dramatically altered the natural morpholgy and the wild beauty of these mountains.

In recent years, however, reflecting the advances in quarrying technology, fortu-nately underground quarrying has been practised more and more frequently, thus reducing the environmental damage. Moreover, the recent creation of the National Park of the Apuane has introduced a series of constraints that should go some way towards regulating the quarrying and encouraging a more touristic use of the resources of the area, a paradise for anyone who loves the mountains and wishes to explore a still uncontaminated nature, extremely rich in native flora and fauna.

Nevertheless the marble industry remains, together with the summer tourism along the famous beaches of Viareggio or Forte dei Marmi, Versilia’s principal income.