Unplanned Visit to the Alpi Apuane

Angela and I were going to see the Xth Biennale International of Sculpture in Carrara, a town famous for its marble quarries for more than 2,000 years. The Baroness invited herself along for the drive.

Carrara is a drive of an hour from Florence. On the way we planned a short detour, a stop in Seravezza, also a marble quarry town, to see an exhibition of an Italian expressionist, Lorenzo Viani.

In Seravezza they like to tell the story of the time Michelangelo stayed there choosing marble for one of his sculptures. Throughout Italy the use of "Michelangelo slept here" is as common as "George Washington slept here" is in the United States.

Once arriving in Seravezza, the Baroness suggested following the road to the end, where there is a little village in the Alpi Apuane, called Stazzema. As she said, "It's a pleasant, beautiful little village (which it was), but with a sad contemporary history. In World War II after Italy switched sides back to the Americans, English, and French, the resistance against the occupying Germans was intense. In August 1944, the Germans rounded up the men, women, and children of Stazzema, and killed them as a reprisal against the partisans."

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