Museo paleontologico Silvio Lai

Opening time from October 1 to March 31 Saturdays: 15:00 h / 18:00 Sunday: h 10.00 / 12.00 from 1 April to 31 May Friday, Saturday: 15:00 h / 18:00 Sunday: h 10.00 / 12.00 from 1 June to 30 September Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday: 16:00 h / 19:00 Friday: 21:00 h / 23:00 Sunday: h 10.00 / 12.00 all holidays (except December 25): h 10.00 / 12.00 The Paleontological Museum "Silvio Lai" was founded in 1993. The current exhibition was opened in 2008, and welcomes visitors in a modern and colorful environment, designed especially for the little ones.

The museum displays part of the municipal collection of fossils from the nearby regional reserve of Rio Torsero, dating back to the Pliocene (5.3000000 to 3.6000000 years ago).

The visit starts from ' "cabinet", where the visitor can follow a self-guided trail, with differentiated levels of depth, opening the series of doors and drawers that make up the structure. L ' "cabinet" invites you to discover the world of fossils, and, in particular, those of Rio Torsero, providing information on the basic concepts of Paleontology, the processes of fossilization, geology and paleogeography of the Reserve. Two tables offer a paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Pliocene seabed.

A series of "box" in the floor contains blocks of fossil rocks of the Cenozoic era, from some of the most important paleontological sites of Liguria.

The visit ends with the entrance in the "spiral", a collection room built inside a shell-shaped structure. The visitor, along counterclockwise series dell'allestimento niches, can retrace the passage of geological time of the Earth, seeing it materialized, age after age, the exposed fossils.

The museum is also equipped with a conference room, a laboratory and a small library / newspaper library.

Outside, a small botanical garden describes the evolution of the land flora from the Paleozoic, dominated by ferns and Licofite Sfenofite, through the Mesozoic (the realm of gymnosperms), leading up to the Cenozoic, which includes our era, whose flora is dominated by angiosperms. Major taxonomic groups are represented by existing plants such as Equisetum hyemale, Cycas revoluta and Wollemia nobilis, whose origins lie in ancient times.