Outdoor museum pieces. Walking along the 'Le Fosse' (The Pits) trail in the hills of Valdagno is like diving into the past, and with a bit of luck and a keen eye, nothing stops the hiker from becoming a researcher. The walk winds through the hamlet of Novale, between 500 and 600 meters above sea level, and offers the opportunity to complete a loop.
The starting point
To reach the trail, you can start from Passo dello Zovo, where you can leave your car, and head towards contrada Rossati di sotto or take the road towards the Mucchione area. Once you pass the agriturismo at the Ranch, after about 200 meters, turn right onto a path that enters the woods. Alternatively, you can focus solely on the trail itself and park in the immediate vicinity of contrada Rossati or, if you choose to start the hike from above, near the agritourism.. The trail known as "Le Fosse di Novale-Mucchione" is approximately 850 meters long and is accompanied by educational boards that illustrate the site's characteristics. To fully enjoy the beauty of the route, it's best to have about an hour and a half to two hours available, which will also allow for small breaks.
The paleo-landslide
Starting from contrada Rossati, at the beginning of the trail, you can observe the remains of a paleoslope, where a rocky cliff stands, and the numerous boulders that have fallen in ancient times, now colonized by the forest. Some of them form small cavities, while one unique feature is a rock arch under which an educational trail passes. Not far away, there's an ancient stone bridge over the stream, which accompanies the hiker for part of the journey, and a lime kiln. Following the trail, you have the opportunity to closely observe two different woodland formations: the black hornbeam on the sunniest slopes and a typical ravine forest with maples and ash trees in the more depressed and less luminous stretches.
A site under study
The area is particularly interesting due to the presence of plant fossils and minerals, and its importance is evidenced by the numerous scholars who have analyzed its fossil flora, such as the paleobotanist Senofonte Squinabol and the botanist Abramo Massalongo. Back in 1824, the Novale pits were mentioned for the first time by the geologist Pietro Maraschin, and the first findings with subsequent studies were carried out in 1854 by Squinabol. Geologist Francesco Bassani and paleontologist Geremia D'Erasmo dedicated themselves to the study of ichthyological evidence. One is faced with an environmental gem: those who undertake it find themselves in front of a deep and shady valley groove, located at the foot of the mountains of Passo dello Zovo, where magnetite, quartz, garnets, zircons, ilmenite, limonite, and even small sapphires are found, although the latter are rare.
A fossil deposit
The area, therefore, had already attracted the attention of geologists and paleontologists in the nineteenth century, and some finds are now kept in local museums: it's worth noting that in 2005 two blue sapphires were found, and the smaller one is exhibited at the "Zannato" Civic Museum in Montecchio Maggiore. In 2002, researcher Paolo Storti discovered an exceptionally large zircon: 24 by 22 millimeters and 33.3 carats. You walk surrounded by marl, a rock composed half of limestone and half of clay. Many plant fossils have been found, both of continental and marine origin: some specimens are holotypes, meaning they are the first absolute findings of a particular species in the world, such as "Nepa novalensis" (water flea) and "Smilax dallagoi" (a fruit, dedicated to Domenico Dal Lago), while others are paratypes that describe the mutation of a species like "Caesalpina novalensis" (shrub). These latter two testimonies of a past that has been imprinted in the rocks are now visible at the "Dal Lago" Civic Museum in Valdagno.
(GdV, domenica 4 febbraio)