Veneto transit town near Venice, sitting beside the Roman site of Altinum.
Quarto d'Altino is a small town in the Veneto, about 15 minutes by train from Venice and a few kilometres from Marco Polo International Airport. For most visitors it functions purely as a transit point, but the town has an ancient history worth knowing.
Modern Quarto d'Altino sits near the site of Roman Altinum, one of the most important cities of northeast Italy before the barbarian invasions of the 5th century forced its population to flee to the lagoon islands — including the island that would become Venice. The Museo Nazionale di Altino holds finds from the Roman and pre-Roman settlement, including mosaics, inscribed funerary monuments, and everyday objects from a prosperous Roman city that otherwise left no standing ruins. Aerial photographs displayed in the museum reveal the ghostly street plan of Altinum still visible as crop marks in the surrounding farmland.
The town itself is unremarkable, but useful as a base if Venice accommodation is full or overpriced — trains run frequently and the journey takes about 15 minutes.
Guide
Day Trips
Quarto d'Altino is ideally positioned for day trips to Venice (15 minutes by train), Treviso (20 minutes), and the Venetian Lagoon. The lagoon islands — Murano, Burano, and Torcello — are accessible from Venice by vaporetto, and Torcello in particular has strong connections to the Altinum refugees who founded Venice: the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta there dates from the 7th century, built by those fleeing the mainland.
Guide
Getting There
Quarto d'Altino is on the Venice–Trieste railway line, served by regional trains from Venice Santa Lucia (about 15 minutes) and Treviso (about 20 minutes). The station is about a kilometre from the museum and town centre, walkable in 15 minutes.
By car, the town is accessible from the A4 motorway (Venice–Trieste direction) at the Quarto d'Altino exit, and is also close to Marco Polo International Airport — about 5 kilometres by road. It makes a practical base if Venice accommodation is full or expensive, with easy train access to the city.