The river source is near the Reschen Pass close to the borders with Austria and Switzerland above the Inn valley. It flows through the artificial alpine Lake Reschen. The lake is known for the church tower that marks the site of the former village of Alt Graun ; it was evacuated and flooded in 1953 after the dam was finished. Near Glurns, the Rom river joins from the Swiss Val Müstair. The Adige runs eastward through the Vinschgau to Merano, where it is met by the Passer riverfrom the north. The section between Merano and Bolzano is called Etschtal, meaning Adige Valley. South of Bolzano, the river is joined by the Eisack and turns south through a valley which has always been one of the major routes through the Alps, connecting the Reschen and the Brenner passes, at considered the easiest of the main Alpine passes. The Chiusa di Salornonarrows at Salorno mark the southernmost part of the predominantly German-speaking province of South Tyrol. The Adige was mentioned in the "Lied der Deutschen" of 1841 as the southern border of the German language area. As of 2011 62% of Salorno speaks Italian and 37% speaks German. In 1922 Germany adopted the song as its national anthem, although by that time Italy had taken control of all of the Adige. Near Trento, the Avisio, Noce, and Fersina rivers join. The Adige crosses Trentino and later Veneto, flowing past the town of Rovereto, the Lagarina Valley, the cities of Verona and Adria and the north-eastern part of the Po Plain into the Adriatic Sea. The Adige and the Po run parallel in the river delta without properly joining. The Adige is connected to Lake Garda by the Mori-Torbole tunnel, an artificial underground canal built for flood prevention.
Tributaries
The following rivers are tributaries to the river Adige :
The Adige is a home to the marble trout, but at far lower populations than in the past. Fish stocking is one of the most significant causes of the sharp reduction in the original fish population of this subspecies. It will spawn with and interbreed with brown trout, which are regularly stocked in the river and its tributaries.
