Marble
slabs

Marble is limestone that spent time under heat and pressure until its calcite recrystallised. That process is what produces the veining: mineral impurities, mostly iron, clay and graphite, get squeezed into seams while the background stone turns pure. It is also why no two slabs match, and why the quarry block matters more than the name on the label. Two slabs both honestly sold as Calacatta can look nothing alike.

The trade-off is chemical and there is no way around it. Calcite reacts to acid, so lemon juice, wine, coffee and most bathroom cleaners will etch a polished surface, leaving a dull mark where the polish used to be. That is etching, and it is not a stain and not damage to the stone. A honed finish hides it almost completely because there is no gloss to interrupt, which is the single most useful thing to know before specifying marble in a kitchen.

Sealing is worth understanding properly, because it is oversold. A sealer is an anti-stain treatment: it slows absorption so a spill can be wiped before it soaks in. It does nothing to prevent etching. If somebody promises you a sealer that stops etching, they are selling you something that does not exist. Seal on install, reseal when water stops beading, and choose the finish for how you actually cook.

Where marble earns its reputation is the light. Miami interiors get hard, bright, high-angle sun, and marble is slightly translucent: light enters the surface and scatters a millimetre or two down before it comes back. That is why a marble island looks lit from within at four in the afternoon and why a porcelain slab printed with the same pattern goes flat in the same room. It is the one quality no engineered surface has managed to copy.