Walking in the Land of the Rhaetian People
The name Cammino Retico (Rhaetian Way) refers to the pre-Roman past of the town of Feltre and the entire Feltrino area, characterised by the presence of the Raeti, a culture that, from its epicentre in Trentino (fundamental, for example, are the findings at Sanzeno, which give their name to one of the most important variants of this culture, that of Fritzens-Sanzeno), then spread to the upper Vicenza area, the Bressanone area and South Tyrol in general (especially with the material culture variant of the Luco-Meluno culture) and to all the territories between the eastern part of present-day Switzerland and Carnia. The Raeti were part of a particularly complex territorial framework, which also included, in our territory, the Ancient Veneti – with peculiar aspects that led Giulia Fogolari to identify them as “Alpine Veneti” – and the Carni, who occupied the northern part of present-day Friuli and extended as far as the eastern part of Cadore. In this cultural and political context, which defined a truly fragmented landscape of power, Feltre and the Feltrino area represented one of the outposts of Rhaetian culture.
