Archaeology Gives Perspective on Ancient Economic Hub

Verona is a fascinating city with history reaching far back to times before the Roman Empire had conquered the entirety of Italy and beyond. It is a key location where alpine trade routes leave the treacherous Alps and enter not only the flatlands of northern Italy but the water route provided by the Adige River. The nature of Verona’s location has made it a much sought after piece of land throughout history and it’s being located within a crook of the Adige with only one exposed side makes its very defensible. Verona was an obvious target for conquest by the Roman Empire. In preparation for my time in Verona I read an article discussing the various evidence of Agustin policy standardization as demonstrated by comparing the architecture and city design of roman built Verona to other sites knows to have been built or rebuilt circa 15bc Roman built Verona consists mostly of a square section of the city located south of the Adige and characterized by a grid pattern layout.

  Modern day Verona is a magical place where women in long fur coats walk past the remnants of roman splendor without a glance as they make their way to the designer shops situated across the plaza from an arena constructed of massive blocks of solid Verona marble. 

Ruminants of the old are visible everywhere as you make your way through the city from the worn blocks of marble under foot to the towering medieval walls you pass through to find the arena located at the southern limit of Roman built Verona.

 From the arena you can travel a white marble street and traverse the fast moving and wide Adige. 

once across the Adige turning left and walking about a quarter of a mile will allow you to see the oldest bridge in Verona, the first bridge to span the Adige and allow trade from northern Europe into southern Italy still stands at the base of the castle which protected this port of entry.

 Walking through Verona is both a glaring reminder of modern Italian culture and a fantastic look into the development of this ancient global economy.