When we talk about nature, we often immediately think of plants and animals. But there is another fundamental aspect that represents its foundation: geodiversity. This term refers to the variety of rocks, minerals, fossils, landscape forms, and natural processes that, over millions of years, have shaped the Earth.

Just as biodiversity is essential for life, geodiversity creates the physical conditions that make it possible. Where soil, rocks, and landscapes are diverse, we are also more likely to encounter a rich variety of environments and living organisms.

Getting to know geosites means better understanding the land in which we live, appreciating its natural history, learning to respect it, and finding new keys to sustainable development. Valuing geodiversity, in fact, is not just an academic exercise but also a cultural, educational, and environmental investment for future generations.

Within this wealth we find the geosites. These are special places where the Earth’s history is written in the rocks. A geosite can recount the story of ancient seas, extinct volcanoes, glaciations, or tectonic events. Some are known for their fossils, others for their landscape forms (the so-called geomorphosites), and still others for the chemical or mineralogical composition of their rocks.