Via Valeria

It is doubtful whether, before Claudius, the Via Valeria ran farther than Cerfennia, the eastern point of the territory of the Marsi, to the northeast of Lake Fucino.

5973) states that in 48-49 AD Claudius made the Via Claudia Valeria from Cerfennia to the mouth of the Aternus (the site of modern Pescara).

This difficult part of the road to the valley of the Aternus involved a drop of nearly 300 m and the crossing of the main ridge of the Apennines by the modern Forca Caruso.

[2] Since 2000 the Ponte Scutonico, the most important and well-preserved monument of the Via Valeria in the Aniene valley which had been buried after floods and landslides, has been excavated with the enhancement of the stretch of road belonging to it leading to a considerable advance in knowledge.

Hardly widened or improved until the nineteenth century, it remained the backbone of the Ionian drainage basin of Sicily, favouring the development of cities along it: Messina, Taormina, Giardini-Naxos, Giarre, Acireale, Catania, Augusta, and Siracusa.