Marbles and other ornamental stones from the Apuane Alps (northern Tuscany, Italy)

This paper aims to offer a general view of the ornamental stones of commercial interest present in the large outcrops of the Apuane Alps Metamorphic Complex. Apart from the worldwide known white marbles, other rocks quite used for both decorative and building applications are variously coloured metabreccias and calcschists, metasandstones and minor phyllites. The physical and microstructural features of the lithotypes are shortly described as the heritage of the tectono-metamorphic evolution suffered by them during the Tertiary Alpine-Apennine orogenesis. Their meso- and microstructural setting (particularly of the marbles) are discussed in relation to the problems of cutting measures in the open-sky or underground quarries, in order to obtain the most decorative products.