The cep (fam. Boletaceae) is the best-known species of mushroom among the edible fungi. It is recognisable by its cap, which varies in diameter from 10 to 30 cm and is velvety in colour, and by its compact, whitish or light hazel stem.
It grows in the summer months until late autumn on heaths and in oak, beech and coniferous forests. It is excellent and tasty in cooking.
Mushrooms are organisms belonging to the kingdom Mycetae. There are many varieties, but not all of them are edible; in fact, many species are poisonous to humans, with varying degrees of toxicity.
Edible mushrooms are a delicious food, with low calories and many nutritional values.
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At the foot of the Apuan Alps, Carrara is unique in the world for its marble quarries. The “white gold of the Apuan Alps”: this is how the marble of Carrara is defined, a precious stone with which important works have been realised and that has made this town, for centuries devoted to its extraction and processing, great.
One of the first people to venture into marble quarrying were the Romans who, by inserting beams of fig wood inside natural fissures in the rock, filled these with water until they were completely impregnated and caused the rock to split. This extraction technique remained unchanged, if not with minor variations, until the Renaissance when Michelangelo began to frequent the Carrara area to directly choose the raw material for his works: it was from Carrara, transported along the Arno, that the block from which the Maestro sculpted the famous David came.
Marble thus became an important raw material for the construction, furnishing and decoration of public buildings and patrician residences.
Even today, skilful artists and craftsmen still work this material with mastery, creating stupendous works of art and decorative objects that become true furnishing accessories.