"Wonderful fossil-rich rock" Tivoli Off The Beaten Path Tip by leics

If you visit the Villa d'Este (as you probably will) take a closer look at some of the stones used for bordering paths in the gardens (and in some walls too).

It's a type of limestone, but is fossil-rich. In fact, it seems to consist almost entirely of prehistoric corals, concreted together by the millennia. Tubes and bubbles and casts abound:entirely wondrous.

I saw it in Rome too, in what remains of the Palatine gardens of the Villa Farnese. I suspect it must have been a popular 'garden feature' in Renaissance times.

Well worth a closer look.