MASSA & CARRARA, MARBLE & GIANLUIGI BUFFON

Joseph de Ca'th Lon visits Massa, Tuscany

Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and his friends have visited two beautiful towns in Tuscany, Massa and Carrara. Both of them are well-known by their industry of marble and Carrara is also very popular to be the cradle of anarchism in Italy and the birthplace of the best goalkeeper of the latest times, Gianluca Buffon.

During the trip from Lucca to Massa, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Intermediate Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 18). 

More information: The Natural Environment

Massa, in Emilian Masa, is a town and comune in Tuscany, the administrative centre of the province of Massa and Carrara. It is located in the Frigido River Valley, near the Alpi Apuane, 5 km from the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Massa is mentioned for the first time in the Tabula Peutingeriana, a 2nd-4th century AD itinerary, with the name ad Tabernas frigidas, referring perhaps to a stage on the Via Aemilia Scauri consular road from Pisa to Luni.

From the 15th to the 19th century, Massa was the capital of the independent Principate, later Duchy, of Massa and Carrara, ruled by the Malaspina and Cybo-Malaspina families.

Tina visits Castello Malaspina di Fosdinovo, Massa

Massa is the first recorded town in Europe in which the magnetic needle compass was used in mines to map them and determine the extent of various mine owners' properties. In 1829 the states were inherited by Francis IV, Duke of Modena. In 1859, during the unification of Italy process, it joined the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Located in south of the province, near the borders with the Province of Lucca, Massa is a coastal town by the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The Massa area is of high touristic value and also hosts a concentration of some 600 industrial and craft activities, located within the so-called Apuan Industrial Zone, with a direct employment of more than 7,000 people. Together with the twin town of Carrara, Massa is known for the extraction and production of marble.

More information: Comune di Massa (Italian version)

Carrara, in Emilian Carara, is a city and comune in Tuscany of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some 100 kilometres  west-northwest of Florence. Its motto in Latin is Fortitudo mea in rota that means My strength is in the wheel.

There were known settlements in the area as early as the 9th century BC, when the Apuan Ligures lived in the region. The current town originated from the borough built to house workers in the marble quarries created by the Romans after their conquest of Liguria in the early 2nd century BC.

Carrara has been linked with the process of quarrying and carving marble since the Roman Age. Marble was exported from the nearby harbour of Luni at the mouth of river Magra.

Tonyi & Jordi visit Carrara, Tuscany

In the early Middle Ages it was a Byzantine and then Lombard possession, and then, it was under the Bishops of Luni who started to write the city's history when the Emperor Otto I gave it to them.

It turned itself into a city-state in the early 13th century; during the struggle between Guelphs and Ghibellines, Carrara usually belonged to the latter party. The Bishops acquired it again in 1230, their rule ending in 1313, when the city was given in succession to the Republics of Pisa, Lucca and Florence. Later it was acquired by Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan.

After the death of Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan in 1447, Carrara was fought over by Tommaso Campofregoso, lord of Sarzana, and again the Malaspina family, who moved here the seat of their signoria in the second half of the 15th century.

More information: Visit Tuscany

Carrara and Massa formed the Duchy of Massa and Carrara from the 15th to the 19th century. Under the last Malaspina, Maria Teresa, who had married Ercole III d'Este, it became part of the Duchy of Modena.

After the short Napoleonic rule of Elisa Bonaparte, it was given back to Modena. During the unification of Italy age, Carrara was the seat of a popular revolt led by Domenico Cucchiari, and was a center of Giuseppe Mazzini's revolutionary activity.

At the end of the 19th century Carrara became the cradle of anarchism in Italy, in particular among the quarry workers. The quarry workers, including the stone carvers, had radical beliefs that set them apart from others. Ideas from outside the city began to influence the Carrarese.

Anarchism and general radicalism became part of the heritage of the stone carvers. According to a New York Times article of 1894 many violent revolutionists who had been expelled from Belgium and Switzerland went to Carrara in 1885 and founded the first anarchist group in Italy.  

The Grandma & Claire visit a marble quarry, Carrara

Carrara has remained a continuous hotbed of anarchism in Italy, with several organizations located openly in the city.

The Anarchist marble workers were also the driving force behind organising labour in the quarries and in the carving sheds. They were also the main protagonists of the Lunigiana revolt in January 1894.

In 1929, the municipalities of Carrara, Massa and Montignoso were merged in a single municipality, called Apuania. In 1945 the previous situation was restored.

Carrara is the birthplace of the International Federation of Anarchists (IFA), formed in 1968.

More information: Comune di Carrara (Italian Version)

As a titular Duke of Modena, the current holder of the title of Prince of Carrara would be Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este.

Carrara marble has been used since the time of Ancient Rome. The Pantheon and Trajan's Column in Rome are constructed of it, and many sculptures of the Renaissance were carved from it.

In addition to the marble quarries, the city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuary and antiquities, and a yearly marble technology fair. The local marble is exported around the world, and marble from elsewhere is also fashioned and sculpted commercially here.

The word Carrara likely comes from the pre-Roman, Celtic or Ligurian, element kar (stone), through Latin carrariae meaning quarries.

More information: Visit Tuscany

The marble not yet carved can hold 

the form of every thought the greatest artist has.

Michelangelo

Gianluigi Buffon (Born 28 January 1978) commonly shortened to Gigi Buffon, is a Tuscan professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for French club Paris Saint-Germain. He is widely regarded by players, pundits and managers as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, and, by some, as the greatest ever.

At club level, Buffon's professional career began with Parma in 1995, where he made his Serie A debut. He soon earned a reputation as one of the most promising young goalkeepers in Italy, and helped Parma win the Coppa Italia, the UEFA Cup and the Supercoppa Italiana, in 1999.

After joining Juventus in 2001 for the world record fee for a goalkeeper of €52 million at the time, Buffon won Serie A titles in both of his first two seasons at the club, and established himself as one of the best players in the world in his position. With Juventus, he won a record nine Serie A titles, as well as four Coppa Italia titles, and five Supercoppa Italiana titles.

Gianluigi Buffon

After 17 years with Juventus, Buffon signed with French club Paris Saint-Germain at the age of 40 in 2018, where he immediately won the Trophée des Champions in his first season with the team.

With 176 international caps, Buffon is the most capped player in the history of the Italy national team, the fourth-most capped footballer of all time, and the most capped European international player ever; Buffon also holds the record most appearances for Italy as captain after he inherited the armband following the departure of Fabio Cannavaro in 2010.

Buffon was called up for a record of five FIFA World Cup tournaments (1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014) since making his debut in 1997; he was an unused substitute in the 1998 edition.

More information: Goal

He was the starting goalkeeper of the squad that won the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. He also represented Italy at four European Championships, at the 1996 Olympics, and at two FIFA Confederations Cups, winning a bronze medal in the 2013 edition of the tournament.

He retired from international football in 2017, after Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, although he later came out of retirement for the team's friendlies the following year, before officially confirming his international retirement in May 2018.

Buffon was the runner-up for the Ballon d'Or in 2006, and was elected to be part of the FIFPro World XI, an honour which he also achieved two more times. He is the first goalkeeper ever to win the Golden Foot Award, which pertains to both personality and playing ability. 

Gianluigi Buffon

He was the first goalkeeper ever to win the Serie A Footballer of the Year award, and was also named the Serie A Goalkeeper of the Year a record 12 times. 

He was named the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper a record five times, and was also named the best goalkeeper of the 21st century, of the past 25 years, and of the decade, by the same organisation. He holds the record for the most clean sheets in Serie A, and with the Italy national team; he also holds the record for the longest streak without conceding a goal in Serie A history: over 12 league matches, he went unbeaten for 974 consecutive minutes during the 2015–16 season, as well as having achieved the most consecutive clean sheets  in Serie A in that same season.

He is also one of only twenty-five players to have made at least 1,000 professional career appearances. He was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players in 2004.

Following his 2006 World Cup victory with Italy, where he kept a record five clean sheets, he won the Yashin Award, in which he was also elected to be part of the Team of the Tournament; an honour which he also received after reaching the quarter-finals of the 2008 European Championship, and the final of the 2012 European Championship.

Buffon is the only goalkeeper to have won the UEFA Club Footballer of the Year Award, which he won after reaching the 2003 UEFA Champions League Final; he also won the award for best Goalkeeper that year, and was voted into the UEFA Team of the Year five times.

After reaching the 2015 and 2017 Champions League finals, he was named to the Champions League Squad of the Season on both occasions, and also won the inaugural The Best FIFA Goalkeeper award in the latter year.

More information: The Players Tribune

 I believe in doing the right things; 
that is my character and personality.
 In football, you win as a group, you lose as a group; 

you divide the credit and the blame.

Gianluigi Buffon