This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Cicagna is a town of about 1,600 inhabitants, located in the centre of the Fontanabuona Valley, on the two banks of the Lavagna stream, just above of the intersection with the Màlvaro Torrent. That area is marked by quarries, and rural landscape with many slate elements, including pavements, delimiting slabs, low walls, and humble buildings.,
In the past, the locals use to extract slate slabs from the numberless caves in the whole area – often quite small – and have the women carry them along the valley, to Genoa harbour.

Following “via dell’ardesia”, we can find out much more about the very origin, extraction and use of that popular black stone.
The suggested route includes a series of visit, starting from Chiapparoni di Cicagna: many objects made of slate can be seen, including blackboards, billiards and anything else that can be made with this particular material.

The town of Isolona is only 3 km away. There, an underground quarry allows visitors to discover the various types of rocks, the geological structure, the ancient tools, and the ever-improving extraction methods. The visit ends in an old laboratory, fitted with tools also designed to create works of art with slate.

For those interested in the purely historical aspects of the black stone, the last stop in Cicagna offers an instructional museum, which features the history of the local population, a historical-archaeological exhibition, and a collection of objects from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)