Italy
We have been so incredibly fortunate in our working lives to have visited Italy on many occasions. There are 2 major centres for marble production, the best known obviously the beautiful town of Carrara in Tuscany, just north of Pisa and the Verona area around the stunning Lake Garda.
Carrara is home to the world famous White Carrara Marble which was used by Michael Angelo for several works of art including the magnificent Statue of David. The marble industry in Carrara and nearby towns is formed around the quarries. White Carrara is their “local Stone” and is used widely on pavements and carvings as well as flooring and wall cladding.
Typically, we visit the area 3-4 times a year with clients, designers and architects to choose marble for their projects. Once a client flew us over in his private jet, we chose over 1000m2 and 5 different types of marble for his home and then flew back the same day.
We are always delighted to escort clients for important projects.
Imagine when your project is completed telling friends your story about visiting Italy with IDEAL Marble to choose your very own special selection of marble slabs.
Spain
Spain is very rich in natural marble quarries with some of the most beautiful and famous marble varieties in the world.
One of the most beautiful cream coloured marbles which is widely used all over the world is Crema Marfil, quarried near Novelda and Alicanti
Spain also produces the magnificent Emperador Marble available in dark and light brown varieties. Others like classics Rosso Alicante and Crema Valencia are widely specified by Designers and Architects due to their stunning natural colour and characteristics. On our travels to Spain we generally visit the Alicanti area where there is huge selection of all the Spanish marble types available. Our Spanish hosts are always extremely hospitable and professional and we love doing business with them.
Portugal
For a small Country Portugal has a rich and diverse variety of natural stone quarries.
From the beautifully soft Rose Aurora and Estremoz marbles used widely in bathrooms and fireplaces to the extremely hard wearing grey and yellow coloured granites which are used in the UK for all sorts of commercial projects.
However, by far Portugal is most famous for it’s limestones. We have bought thousands of square meters of limestone from Portugal and used this extensively on Commercial and Domestic projects. The Bank of England Museum even has massive blocks of Portuguese limestone on their display cases and flooring. Moleanos, Mocca Cream, Azul Val Verde, Azul Cascais, Branco do Mar and many more are generally quarried in a region north of Lisbon.
We had one trip to the Novelda in 2017, apart from the success of the trip where we bought several varieties of stone for our stock – we all agreed that we were served the best steak anyone had ever tasted.
Switzerland
Natural stone can be quarried in virtually every country in the World, therefore, in our industry it is a regular occurrence that we are commissioned to import a stone from a country where we have not imported from before. On this particular Project at St Georges Hill in Weybridge we were asked by the high flying London developers Finchatton to tile an entire swimming pool area in Vals Quartz. As the project was so prestigious and we had not used the material before we had to visit the quarry to understand the stone and tie up a deal with the quarry owners. Needless to say we had an amazing trip to the tiny village of Vals in the Surselva region. Vals has a world renowned natural thermal Spa in the 7132 hotel – truly one of the most amazing experiences of our lives.
