Portogruaro, Bolca (near Vicenza)

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Left early for a 2 hour trip on the Autostrada to Vicenzca, turning off at Saove and heading into the hills to Bolca at 850m. It takes a bit of getting used to driving at 130-140kph but everyone is moving along nicely so it doesn't seem to be an issue flying along at that speed.
Bolca is a small village in the hills near Soave known as the Pesciara (meaning the fish bowl) famous for perfectly preserved Eocene (49MY) fish and other marine and plant fossils. Needless to say, I was in 7th heaven as the one thing missing from my collection is a fish fossil and these are beautiful and perfect. The fossils were laid down in a shallow water lagoon environment not unlike the Waimea Estuary I would imagine. A volcano erupted shutting off the lagoon or bay and covering the area with ash, thus trapping all life in that area in the sediments and preserving them perfectly.
The Museum is crammed with wonderful fish examples, crustaceans, gastropods, bivalves, leaves, flowers and plants. From Mt Postale close by, a crocodile had been found by some miners and this had been donated to the Museum. Also as part of the museum complex was a section by the Cerato Family who had originally established the museum. Since I have a talk to give on returning to NZ there were many photos taken and a fish fossil bought to take home. If interested check it out on http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Fossil_Sites/monte-bolca.htm
We then drove to Pescaria to a cave where guided tours were given to show people the site where many fossils were found. Essentially it is a one metre layer of marine sediments. However, the truly wonderful sight, was seeing families and kids sitting on a pile of mudstone pieces hammering away looking for fossils of their own. There were dozens of them. Some Mums and Dads sat back and had a picnic while the kids played and hunted on the rock pile. Amazing. Can you imagine that happening in NZ?
We left Bolca and headed back via the Chiampo Valley which is famous for marble and tanneries, the latter of which there are 800 family owned tanneries. There are also many business's dealing in the famous Chiampo Marble which comes in a range of colours. A bit more research is required on this topic.
Then it was a flying trip back to Portogruaro on the Autostrada.

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Photos

Angel Fish
Eocene fossil fish from Bolca Museum

Families hunting for fossils
Everyone is very busy looking and hammering for a lucky find