Carrara Marble Slab

Carrara has been the reference point for white marble for over two thousand years — Michelangelo carved the David and the Pietà from blocks quarried in these same mountains above the Tuscan coast. What’s sold under the name today still comes from that stretch of the Apuan Alps: a soft white ground moving through fine, close grey veining, honed here to a smooth, low-sheen finish rather than a full polish.

It’s cut for kitchen benchtops and bathroom vanities most often, though it holds up just as well as cladding, flooring or furniture — a genuinely versatile stone, which is part of why it’s stayed the default choice for white marble this long rather than a passing trend.

Marble is a metamorphic limestone, formed under heat and pressure that recrystallises the original rock into a dense, crystalline structure. It’s softer than granite or quartzite, which is exactly what allows the honed finish to sit so smooth and the veining to read so clearly across the surface.