The rocks on the surface of the Earth play a primary role in determining the forms of the landscape, the climate and the natural habitats. The presence of man in the territory, his culture and local traditions are conditioned by the accessibility of the area. All of these are strongly associated with the "geological” nature of the territory in which man (understood as community as well) lives and works. At the beginning rocks were used as shelters then as the first utensils and now for construction. Besides, some subsoil resources (fossil oils, precious stones) were among the first items of exchange.

What is the origin of the rocks? Where do they come from? In which geological era were they formed? There are rocks that have the same age as the Earth (some types of meteorites) and others that are forming in this precise moment (incandescent lava). Some are as hard as granite and others as smooth as the sand from the sea, some come from the ocean floor, others from depths man will never be able to reach. Rocks are not static, inactive materials, they’re the key to read the geological past. Some have witnessed cataclysms and exceptional climatic changes preserving unique testimonies for thousands of years (in some limestone it is possible to find remains of organisms and animals now extinct). Others preserve indelible scars caused by the mountain formation (folds and fractures in the metamorphic rocks); other "tell us" that the ocean floor is in continuous movement or that the North Pole and the South Pole have exchanged places several times over millions of years (submarine basalts, characteristic of the terrestrial magnetism traces).