Testimonies of the history of the earth in central Italy

By Alfredo Brofferio

This text of Alfredo Brofferio –that was presented at a conference during EXPO-2015 in Milan– retraces some fundamental stages of the history and evolution of the territory –and its people– in Central Italy, with particular attention paid to all those elements (cultural, social, gastronomic, artistic) which have contributed to make it a part of the Italian Peninsula among the most interesting to visit.

Alfredo Brofferio has worked for 35 years in IBM and has lived in 7 different cities of Europe for work reasons. Once retired, he has gone back to live in Gubbio, native town of his mother.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Europa Edizioni
• Release date: Apr 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9788855089739

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Alfredo Brofferio

Testimonies of the history of the earth in central Italy

EDIFICARE

UNIVERSI

© 2020 Europa Edizioni s.r.l. | Roma

www.europaedizioni.it

I edizione elettronica aprile 2020

ISBN 978-88-5508-973-9

Distributore per le librerie Messaggerie Libri

To Dianella Salvadori Paleotti

The history and the morphology of the territory

form the character of the people that live in it.

Alfredo Brofferio

TESTIMONIES OF THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH IN CENTRAL ITALY

Alfredo Brofferio

Italy did not exist in the Jurrassic-Cretaceous period between 205 and 65 million years ago. In its place there was a shallow tropical sea full of life.

Over millions of years deposits of mud and other coverings built up in these waters and hardened to form in due course the backbone of the Apennines. In the calcareous stratigraphic layers within this mountain range fossils of various types are to be found.

In the Regional Park of Monte Cucco it is possible to visit a huge geological phenomenon known as The Cave of Monte Cucco, a network of caves extending about 30 km and almost 900 meters underground. It is a vast underground structure which represents a real scientific laboratory for all those involved in paleontology, geology and underground flora and fauna. To date an excursion into the cave must be specially arranged. It covers a distance of about 1000 meters, but is a unique and exciting experience. To reach the cave you must find your way along mountain paths through meadows and clusters of beech trees, enjoying the scenario of this lovely spot 1200 meters above sea level.

Museum of the Caves - Costacciaro

This museum-workshop is a unique educational facility, different in the way it shows what happens in the limestone mountain folds of Monte Cucco and the Apennine range running through Umbria and the Marche from the time of their creation: it reveals the mysterious paths that the rain follows in the bowels of the mountains before emerging into the light at the springs and other sources of streams feeding the slopes of the plains. It is an exciting journey through the workshop for everyone, especially for children and young people in schools, which calls for the discovery and acquisition of knowledge about the different phases, with some manual intervention assistance using machinery, tools and three-dimensional models operated by the visitors themselves.

COLLE D’ORLANDO (Costacciaro)

This site shows stratified rocks from a Jurassic succession of 300 meters or more in thickness. This allows us to study a geological environmental crisis: the waters of the Sea had suddenly been depleted of oxygen (probably due to a closure of the