Carrara , the city has academies of sculpture and fine arts and a museum of statuary and antiquities, and a yearly marble technology fair. The local marble is exported around the world, and marble from elsewhere is also fashioned and sculpted commercially here. The word "Carrara" likely comes from the pre-Roman (Celtic or Ligurian) element "kar" (stone), through Latin "carrariae" meaning 'quarries'. Carrara is twinned with: Carrara Carrara () is a city and "comune" in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione
History of Tuscany in the Crusades. Banking, soon turned into an international activity with branches in Flanders, France and England, was instead the main resource of Florence, Siena and Lucca. The latter was also an important center for silk production. Pisa began to decline in the 13th/14th centuries after its defeat by Genoa at the Battle of Meloria. After its conquest of Arezzo and Pisa, by the early 15th century Florence had gained a prominent role in Tuscany, as well as in Italy, and was also the cultural capital of the region. Its only remaining rival in Tuscany was Siena. Though "Tuscany" remained