Along the right bank of the river Adige, at the bottom of the Val Lagarina, which separates Monte Baldo from the Lessinia, lies the Veronese settlement of Brentino Belluno. In 2004, the Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Veneto, began an archaeological research project in this area, including an archaeological training school. It consists of a structural, ‘rustic’, complex of the Roman period. It extends over a large area (over 2000 sqm.), which had already been partly brought to light between 1968 and 1971 during the construction of the Verona-Brennero motorway: The complex has at least two courtyards and various rooms both for residential and productive purposes. Very probably it is a mansio, in use between the 1st and the late 5th-mid 6th centuries AD, with some occasional frequentation until the 13th century.

The investigations have defined the extension of the entire complex, now fully documented, and allowed us to understand its function and topographic context. In 2009 the western limit of the mansio was identified, consisting of a long and substantial north-south wall, linked to a large external canal built with large, whole tiles.

The discovery of a rectangular room with walls lined with white plaster and a cocciopesto pavement, still partly covered by the collapse of the ceiling demonstrated byimpressions of the canes in the plaster, supports the hypothesis that the residential area of the building was situated along the western side of the complex. To the west of the perimeter wall, the investigations revealed a long stretch of the via glareata running north-south, consisting of packed pebbles, earth and small stones; the road surface has clearly been levelled and raised numerous times. It is probably a side road of the Via Claudia Augusta Padana which, at its junction with the via Postumia at Ostiglia sul Po, passing through Verona and crossing the Valle Atesina, continued in the direction of Trento, crossing the Alps towards Noricum (Austria) and Vindelicia, whilst the other tract continued towards eastern Veneto. To the west of this road a rustic building was also discovered, an isolated structure in the middle of agricultural land. It consists of two rooms with beaten earth floors, which were enlarged during the mid imperial to late antique period and separated by the road from the larger complex.

Finally, the pre-Roman frequentation of the site was confirmed, as indicated by some structures of the Rhetian period used both as the foundations for the Roman walls and also to restrain the down wash of earth from uphill towards the valley