Peperino

 ( Igneous Petrology ) 

Peperino is an Italian language word describing a brown or grey volcanic tuff, containing fragments of basalt and limestone, with disseminated of augite, mica, magnetite, leucite, and other similar . The name originally referred to the dark-colored inclusions, suggestive of Black pepper.

The typical peperino occurs in the Alban Hills and in Soriano nel Cimino, near Rome, and was used by the ancient Romans under the name of lapis albanus as a building stone and for the basins of fountains.

Other tuffs and conglomerates in Auvergne and elsewhere are also called peperino. In English language the word has sometimes been written "peperine".

Lazian peperino is a cousin to piperno tuff from Campania.

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