Monte San Giorgio

Seen from the lake the mountain is an unremarkable wooded cone of about eleven hundred metres. Its importance is inside it: the black bituminous rock of its flanks formed on the floor of a shallow tropical basin roughly two hundred and forty million years ago, and it preserved fish, marine reptiles, insects and plants in fine detail. Excavation has gone on here since the nineteenth century and still continues, and the mountain was added to the World Heritage list for the quality of that record. The finds are shown in a museum in the village of Meride, rebuilt to a design by Mario Botta, while the mountain itself is walked on quiet paths through chestnut and beech.

What you actually see

• The fossil museum at Meride - skeletons of marine reptiles and fish taken from the mountain.
• The black shale - the fine dark rock in which the fossils were preserved.
• The summit paths - chestnut and beech woods with openings towards Lake Lugano.
• The village of Meride - stone houses and courtyards at the foot of the paths.

When to go

Spring and autumn suit the walking best, since the wooded slopes are humid and airless in July and August. The museum is open most of the year and makes more sense before the walk than after it. Chestnut colour in late October is the pick of the seasons. Check the museum's closing days before travelling.

Honest expectations

There is nothing of the fossils to see on the mountain itself: collecting is not allowed and the excavation sites are not open, so the walk is a pleasant wooded climb and no more. The museum is small. The ascent from Meride is steady, takes a couple of hours and offers little view until near the top, and summer humidity here is real.

Nearby

Mendrisio and its vineyards, with Lake Lugano and Monte Generoso to the north.