Calacatta

Calacatta is a metamorphic rock: it begins as limestone, recrystallised over millennia by the heat and pressure of the earth, and is made almost entirely of calcium carbonate in the form of calcite. Only a handful of quarries produce it, all in the Apuan Alps above Carrara; the quantity extracted each year is limited, and that scarcity, together with the pattern, is what makes it one of the most prized marbles in the world.

• Colour. The ground is a warm, almost milky white, whiter than Bianco Carrara, which leans towards grey.
• Veining. Broad, sparse, emphatic veins that cross the slab freely: grey in classic Calacatta, golden in Calacatta Oro and Calacatta Vagli Oro, purplish in Calacatta Viola. The pattern reads from across the room, and no two slabs are alike.
• Hardness. A soft marble compared with granite or quartzite: the point of a knife can mark it, but for the same reason it carves and polishes to a mirror with ease, and a scratch is put right with a fresh honing.
• Porosity. Medium, like the other Apuan whites: it absorbs oil and wine if left unprotected, and an impregnating sealer makes it water- and oil-repellent.

Kitchen

Calacatta is the marble of statement indoor kitchens: islands, peninsulas, worktops and splashbacks where the veining is the centrepiece of the room. If you cook every day with acids and wine, the same kitchen can pair it with a Dekton or quartz worktop around the hob and sink, keeping the Calacatta for the island and the splashbacks.

Bathroom

In the bathroom Calacatta clads walls, floors, shower trays and vanity tops, and basins carved from the solid are among the finest pieces to leave the workshop. One rule only: no limescale remover, which is acidic and dulls the stone within seconds.

Stairs and floors

On interior stairs and floors Calacatta has always been laid, in large-format slabs or as treads with a bevelled edge. A honed finish is the sensible choice: it is less slippery and shows fewer signs of traffic.

Outdoors: no

For terraces and outdoor kitchens Calacatta is not the right choice: rain is slightly acidic, frost opens the micro-fissures and sunlight yellows white marble over time. Outdoors we propose granite, quartzite and sintered stone, which stand up to sun, rain and frost without changing; Calacatta remains an interior marble.

• Polished. The slab is brought to a mirror: the white deepens, the gold and grey of the veins light up, and the surface absorbs a little less. It suits bathrooms, splashbacks and worktops that are admired more than they are used; on a polished surface, though, an acid mark shows at once.
• Honed. Smooth and matt, with the colour a shade lighter: it hides etching and fine scratches, and for a kitchen worktop in daily use it is the finish we recommend most often.
• Brushed. Gently undulating, velvety to the touch: the most forgiving over time, suited to hard-working worktops and to cladding that should feel warm.

We explain them all, one by one, on our finishes page.

Calacatta worktops are made two or three centimetres thick. Two centimetres is lighter and pairs well with modular kitchens; three centimetres carries the overhang of a peninsula and an undermounted sink more comfortably, and allows moulded edges shaped in the solid. On the chosen slab we carry out the work that decides the quality of a worktop:

• Book-matching. Two consecutive slabs from the same block, one polished on the face and the other on the reverse, set side by side so that the vein mirrors itself across the joint in a butterfly pattern. Calacatta, with its broad veins, is the natural candidate: on the island, on the bathroom wall, around the fireplace.
• Waterfall edge. The vein of the worktop runs down the side of the island without interruption, to the floor: the pieces are cut from the same slab so that the pattern continues over the corner.
• Mitred joint. The slabs are cut at 45 degrees through their thickness and joined at the corner, which shows the polished surface on both faces with an almost invisible seam. A two-centimetre worktop can thus present a six-, eight- or twelve-centimetre front, and a waterfall reads as a single block.
• Carved sink. The sink is carved from the same slab as the worktop, with milled drainer grooves, and the hob sits flush with the stone.

A Calacatta worktop is kept with a few habits, set out in full in our care guide:

• clean with warm water, a neutral soap and a soft cloth, drying to avoid streaks;
• wipe up lemon, vinegar, wine, tomato and fizzy drinks at once: minutes matter, hours do not;
• never limescale remover, descalers, bleach or abrasive sponges;
• always a chopping board and a trivet;
• renew the sealer regularly: if a drop of water spreads and darkens the stone, it is time to repeat the treatment;
• a scratch, an etch mark or a general dullness is removed with a fresh honing or polishing, in the workshop or on site.

These are the three great whites of the Apuan Alps. Bianco Carrara has a cooler ground and fine, diffuse veining: the slab stays calm, suited to whole kitchens and bathrooms, and it is the most widely available. Statuario is the purest: a luminous ground almost free of markings, a few crisp grey veins, the sculptors' marble. Calacatta sits between them for whiteness and above them for drama: a warm ground, broad grey or golden veins.

If you love the Calacatta vein but not the care marble asks for, look at white quartzite, extremely hard and untroubled by lemon, or at Dekton: we compare them in our guide to kitchen worktops.

In our workshop at Aprilia, on the Via Pontina between Rome and Latina, we have worked marble to measure since 1976. We select Calacatta slabs one by one, with you in person or over a video call, because veining is chosen on the slab and never on a sample. A three-dimensional design shows you where every vein will fall before the saw touches the stone. Cutting is done on numerically controlled machines; edges, carved sinks and mitred joints are closed and polished by hand, and the worktop leaves already sealed.

A site survey and quotation are free in Rome, Latina and throughout Lazio; delivery times are set out in the quotation. Installation is by our own team, in Italy and on projects abroad, as in our Dubai project. Read our guide to choosing marble for your kitchen and browse the marble catalogue.