Dinosaur tracks, Fenoliga

Why it is worth your time

The dinosaur footprints at Fenoliga are among the oldest traces of life one can touch on the Adriatic: on the shore slabs by the islet of Fenoliga, at the far south of Istria, the stone preserves the feet of dinosaurs that walked here some hundred and thirty million years ago, when this rock was the soft mud of a shallow lagoon. The prints are of different sizes, from ten centimetres to half a metre, and in some places a whole series of steps is visible, so one can literally walk the same path the animal took.

The site is neither fenced nor charged for; it is reached by a path from the road toward Premantura, and the prints are easiest to spot when the stone is wet or when the sun is low, for then the shadows pick out the edges. Please be considerate: the stone is fragile and the prints wear away, so do not jump on them and take nothing. For families this is a better experience than any museum.