Stone by stone

The town of Santa Fiora (GR) is located on the south-western hillside of Mount Amiata, on a rhyolitic complex with columnar structure. The Amiata volcanic complex belongs to the Tuscan Magmatic province (TMP). The TMP consists of a large variety of intrusive and extrusive rocks, with chemical composition ranging from mafic to acid and ultrapotassic, associated to different stages of a magmatic activity started in the Middle Miocene. Mount Amiata last eruption dates back to 180.000 years ago, but a strong thermal activity is still registered and fuels both some hot water bathing centres and high entalpy geothermal power plants.