Thank you KevinMP , I think I am going to go with the calacata , I hate the grey color of the Carrara . I thought I would stick to budget , I will be way above . What can I do ? when I see something nice I cannot let it go for something less . My DH complains about me having an expensive taste .

My old carrara vanity top had that. I found that it was from soaps, and it looked oily to me to (mostly underneath the soap dispenser). Unfortunately, I never really got rid of it until I pitched the vanity top. But it was old and already there when I moved it. If it had been sealed originally, I'm sure it would have been a little better off, but, as you know, still not bullet proof or impervious. If you haven't yet used it, then it's gotta be something with the installation.

One of the things that gets me all twisted around in these types of choices is the historical context. The most appropriate choice from a decorative standpoint may not be the most appropriate choice from a historical standpoint. The most appropriate one may not be the one that looks better. But if you are changing it out of necessity, maybe letting the historical trump the decorative is kind of revisionist anyway because it's not really historical, it's a replacement. See how I can twist it around? But part of the issue is that in the US there is such little historical fabric. I was talking to a patient from England who said that the house she grew up in was 500 years old But as far as the interiors went, they did not necessarily pick a bathroom tile or fixture based on needing to look "appropriate" in a 500 year old house, because what IS such a thing? Here, we try to preserve each element because of its rarity, but when it comes to having to Replace, what then? Maybe if you are replacing it with something that was not there to begin with (I doubt there was a marble facing on the firebox on the second floor of a house like this) --maybe you can replace it with whatever you like. (?)

Lena, I don't know if you can paint over it. There are primers now that will stick to literally anything, (SW makes a great one) but I don't know what it would look like painted. I also don't know if you could tile over it. I don't know if the adhesive would stick to the marble as it is so smooth. Maybe if it were really roughed up - but I personally wouldn't take a chance. We rebuilt our fireplace a few years ago. The entire wall was brick, about 3/4 of the way up the wall. Ugly, ugly. They used the same brick as the outside of the house, which is nice on the outside, hardly as nice on the inside. Anyway, we took it all down. Luckily there was drywall underneath. It was a mess, but we replastered that. Then we looked for tile and rebuilt it. We based our design on finding tile that would fit with minimal cutting. We then built the surround. We went to Lowe's and were actually laying pieces out on the floor. People walking by had to think we were crazy! We are happy with the results. The hardest part was tearing down the brick wall. Bricks are heavy!! We had an absolutely outrageous estimate to have it done. It is still one of my "wow we did this all ourselves" projects. Sorry I don't have a closer photo. Good Luck!!