TRAVERSE 145
TRAVEL - ITALY
EMILIO SALVATORI & CHRISTINA ZOLI
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON
Our journey begins here , from the silence of Piazza Bad Kissingen , the maritime heart of Massa , where the fourteen monumental blocks of marble , the work of the sculptor Pino Castagna , mark more than a thousand words of the eternal dialogue between the sea and the mountains . A bond that has always linked the thousandyear history of Massa to the marble quarries of the Apuan Alps that , like a theatrical set , stand out in the background .
A perfect postcard where the dazzling white of the day strikes the mind and the heart with the approach of sunset begins to dye the highest peaks of the Apuan Alps bright red , which for centuries with their charm have attracted artists , explorers , and dreamers . The same fire that burned in the eyes of the quarrymen who , until half a century ago , armed only with mallet and chisel , extracted the precious marble from these mountains that , for their white colour , the ancients called the " Mountains of the Moon ".
It is by following the course of the Frigido river that runs alongside Massa that we soon head towards the places that attract us like a magnet , while the majestic Palazzo Ducale and the austere Malaspina castle continue from above to control a city whose origins are lost in the mists of time when these places , well before Rome was born , were the habitat of the Ligurian populations .
Leaving the city the road begins to climb , and the maritime landscape quickly changes . We thus leave the town of Resceto behind us to follow the ribbon of asphalt that becomes increasingly narrow , more intimate . It is the Via dei Colli that welcomes us with curves that seem to have been designed specifically for the motorbike , while the first Apuan villages begin to appear ; Prati della Ciocca , Altagnana , Antona , each a
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