Tempting the Senses

Ingrid Williams writes about the small town of Carrara in a sensory descriptive and picturesque way, "Carrara Tempts Eyes and Mouth" goes beyond just descriptions of the visible, playing on the senses of what we hear and feel as well. In the first paragraph she tells us about the gleaming white mountain tops that rise above Carrara, but it is not what you'd expect the gleam comes from marble not frozen precipitation. In the next paragraph we get an interesting tid-bit and a little bit of history, building the reader's understanding of the importance of this Carrara marble; "Carrara's reputation if inextricably linked to the marble mountains that loom above the town, framing every scene. It was here during the Renaissance that Michelangelo found the block of white marble that he later transformed into 'David'". This section of text lets the reader know how important and intrinsic marble is to Carrara's society and that it has historical significance as it is the marble that makes up the now infamous statue of David.

She goes on to discuss visiting museums and their place in your travel itinerary but she goes back to discussing the mountains and then the caves, because of this attention to the un-obvious her piece does not seem biased to the ordinary tourist attractions but rather an insight into a new piece of paradise; "The real souvenir to treasure, though, is the unforgettable experience of ascending the steep, winding road toward the mountains". It was here, when she begins to describe the mountains and the caves in wonderfully sensory language that I became really engaged in the piece, almost feeling the chill of the cold stone that she described as I read it, remembering similar sensations from my own past. "After the initial shock of passing from the scorching summer heat to an eerily chilled darkness, the enormousness of it all begins to sink in. Sheer marble walls soar a hundred feet high while dripping water echoes through the shadowy, cavernous spaces. The atmosphere is truly otherworldly...". While reading this I can almost hear the distant dripping of the water, feel the eery chill coming from the cool stone and sense the blanket of dim darkness that seems to wrap anyone within it's shadowy walls.

A few paragraphs later she successfully makes a transition between two seemingly disconnected topics, marble and pork fat; "Other visitors, however, come to Carrara seeking another creamy white beauty... A luscious, delicate product made from the back fat of pigs, lardo di Colonnata bears an uncanny resemblance to the marble in which it is produced". Although I personally have never indulged in the creaminess of this Carrara delicacy from her description I feel like I can clearly picture it. She goes on to provide details as to how it is prepared and enjoyed, completely the readers virtual sensory meal and then she brings the two ideas together again in a fluid connection by saying, "But Carrara's contrasting pleasures - the hard marble and soft lardo...", the comparison through contrast is so effective that I am left remembering the two things as almost inextricably linked which is surprising considering at the start of the article I had never heard of lardo before and did not know of Carrara's precious marble.