This daily itinerary leads you to experience a naturalistic and engaging adventure in the Stirone and Piacenziano Regional River Park to discover millenary fossils.
The Park was created at the end of 2011, from the union between the Stirone River Regional Park and the Piacenziano Geological Nature Reserve. The entire Park is of extraordinary importance from a paleontological point of view, thanks to the notable presence of fossiliferous finds from the Tertiary and Quaternary era, brought to light by erosive processes, which have made it known to the international scientific world.
A visit to the Park allows the observation of a rich variety of environments: the river basin, the woods, the open areas and the gullies, particularly suggestive from a landscape point of view and rich in plant and animal species.
In addition to the great interest in the natural habitat and the numerous avifauna that populate it (about 40 different species of birds), the Stirone River Park is of singular importance from a paleontological point of view.
The extraordinary canyon formed by the stream is composed of clayey stratifications rich in marine fossils: it therefore constitutes a sort of open-air museum, with signposted paths and equipped areas, which documents the transition from the Tertiary to the Quaternary era (about 2 and a half million years ago), when the sea covered the area.
Guided tours are possible in the park which favor the discovery of particular aspects of this protected area.
The new museum complex MuMAB - Ancient Sea and Biodiversity Museum - is located in the Stirone and Piacenziano Park area, at Podere Millepioppi, and is composed of the union of two previous museums: the "Ancient Sea" museum set up previously in the Palazzo dei Congressi di Salsomaggiore, and the Naturalistic Museum of the Stirone Park first present in Scipione Ponte.
Administered in collaboration with the management body of the Parks of the Duchy for social and cultural purposes, the museum houses an interesting collection of fossil and paleocetological finds discovered in the last 30 years by the paleontophile Raffaele Quarantelli (1930-2004) and recovered by him with the help of the "Salsesi Paleontophile Group". This collection is probably today the richest and most important "modern" collection of fossils in Emilia Romagna, if not in the entire Padano Basin.
