They were locally known as Ciampate del Diavolo or the "Devil's Trails" until a group of researchers and paleontologists properly identified the prints in 2003. The set of fossilized footprints were found on the slopes of the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy. 

The fossilized footpaths are now open for tourists although they are not allowed to place their feet on the fossils. Since the footprints got the attention of scientists in 2003, the area has been off limits for them to study the prints carefully. On October 7, four years later, they opened the site or everyone to see. Tourists can walk along the footpath from a safe distance.

Previously believed to be prints made by the devil or any supernatural entity were found out to be footprints of humans making their way down the sides of the then active Roccamonfina volcano around 350,000 years ago. There were three sets of fossilized footprints discovered extending along six trails at the edge of the volcano.

One set of tracks was 13.4 meters long and consists of 27 footprints. Another set is 10 meters long and consists of 10 regularly spaced footprints that follow a straight line indicating that the person who made them was walking normally. The last set consists of a series of 19 footprints and measures 8.6 meters long. Some hand prints were also found in the site indicating that the primitive humans might have slipped on the soft earth.

It is theorized that the three individuals walked across a soft mixture of rock fragments, ash and gases. When the volcano erupted, a layer of ash covered the prints which preserved them.

The footprints that the primitive humans made were so distinct and detailed that scientists were able to draw a lot of information from the fossilized marks.

Prof. Paolo Mietto from the University of Padua, Italy, and his research team were the ones who established the true origin of the footprints.

The footprints measures eight inches or 20 cm long and four inches or 10 cm wide. The track ways are narrow with an average pace of two feet (0.6 meter) and a stride of about four feet (1.2 meters). Base on this data, researchers were able to infer that the humans who left the prints were not more than five feet or1.5 meters tall.

Also based on the characteristics of the tracks, those who made them were fully bipedal or two-footed individuals, free-standing, and used their arms for support or balance.

These prints were the oldest that belong to the true humans or from the Genus Homo which is the reason for all the hoopla. The oldest footprints from a pre-human species is in Laetoli in Tanzania. The prints dates back 3.5 million years, but they belong to the hominid ancestor called Australopithecus.