Timmelsjoch Timmelsjoch Timmelsjoch (), (elevation ) is a high mountain pass that creates a link through the Ötztal Alps along the border between Austria and Italy. The Timmelsjoch connects the Ötztal valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol to the Passeier Valley in the Italian province of South Tyrol, as it bridges the saddle point between the Jochköpfl () and Wurmkogl () peaks to its northeast and southwest, respectively. The pass is sometimes called the "secret passage" because it is little-used compared to the much easier and lower Brenner Pass some to its east, and Reschen Pass some to its west.
Brenner Pass to the German word for somebody who clears woodland. A name for the pass itself appears for the first time in 1328 as "ob dem Prenner" (German for "above the Prenner"). The Romans regularised the mountain pass at Brenner, which had already been under frequent use during the prehistoric eras since the most recent Ice Age. Brenner Pass, however, was not the first trans-Alpine Roman road to become regularised under the Roman Empire. The first Roman road to cross the Alpine range, Via Claudia Augusta, connected Verona in northern Italy with Augusta Vindelicorum (modern-day Augsburg) in the Roman province of