Via Claudia Augusta

The Via Claudia Augusta is an ancient Roman road, which linked the valley of the Po River with Rhaetia (encompassing parts of modern Eastern Switzerland, Northern Italy, Western Austria, Southern Germany and all of Liechtenstein) across the Alps.

The route still exists, and since the 1990s increased interest in long-distance hiking and cycling have made the German and Austrian stretches of the Via Claudia Augusta popular among tourists, with the result that modern signage (illustration) identifies the revitalised track.

Since 2007, the Giontech Archeological Site, in Mezzocorona/Kronmetz (Italy) serves as the Via Claudia Augusta International Research Center with the support of the Foundation Piana Rotaliana and the Government of the City of Mezzocorona/Kronmetz.

People and goods could pass between the Adriatic and the broad valley of the Po to Tridentum (modern Trento), then northward following the Adige River up to Pons Drusi, the "bridge of Drusus" which developed into Bolzano.

The milestones indicate that two routes joined at Tridentium before crossing the Alpine pass: one found its starting point at the vicus of Ostiglia, near the Po, the other, its site less securely identified by archaeologists and historians, at the Adriatic port of Altinum, (near the Venetian Lagoon).