In the Palaces of Carrara, you will take on the role of a noble Italian family that has been tasked by the royal court to build many fabulous marble buildings. First you have to collect the precious marble blocks by rotating the main wheel, adding blocks until there are 11 to chose from, and then paying for as many as you can from one segment.

Once you have collected enough marble, you may choose one building from among the available 9 and build it in one of the 6 Italian cities of your choice. But be aware that not all cities accept all types of marble, and you will have to plan accordingly.

Once you have constructed some buildings, you may choose to score. You score either by city, types of buildings, landscapes, statue placement, or money total. Each time you score you’ll receive money, victory points (VP) or a combination of both. New to this second edition, when you decide to score, you may also receive a bonus such as 5 coins or 5 VP!. The other players now have to follow your lead and score on their next turn if they want the same bonus. This introduces some tough decisions, and you may find yourself scoring earlier than planned in order to claim a bonus!

Once you have acquired enough experience, you can play with the advanced set of rules, which adds decorations into the game, as well as a unique 2nd edition element, statues. Both elements can be added to your buildings. Decorations add more value to your properties and statues open up ways to score, and both can mean end game points.

To acquire decorations or statues, if you clear out a whole segment of the wheel when purchasing blocks, you can decide to take the indicated decoration or statue. Decorations are placed on matching types of buildings, and statues are placed in cities that use that color marble to build.

More bonuses are available when scoring in this version such as golden statues and extra decorations.

Play your blocks right to race the other families to construct the most beautiful buildings and to gain the most victory points to win the game.