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Quarto d'Altino >  Google™ Map Sep 2014  Veneto Coat of Arms

quartō quarter + d' (of a mile) from + altinum Latin (name of ancient, roman city). Population - 7,993.

Italy-Veneto Flag Italy > Veneto

Sep 2014

Veneto Coat of Arms

So called because here is a quarter of a mile from the ancient, Roman city of Altinum, wherever that was. Four miles away, actually, and it's not just the distance that's distorted here.

Down at the station, the trains are tardy and it's thought they were supposed to run on time?

Stazione di Quarto d'Altino
Stazione di Quarto d'Altino

The reason for the train? You're trying to do that Venice trip on the cheap, aren't you? RyanAir™ might think they've duped you by dropping you in Treviso but this way, you'll be able to see some of the surrounding area by staying somewhere halfway between with a station.

Funny little place this, it's mostly modern including the council offices with just the slightly wonky belltower of the church of San Michele Arcangelo the only real thing to catch the eye, history-wise.

Not that you'll be lingering here too long, there's a train to catch, remember, and you wouldn't want to be late for that now would you?

  Ristorante Pizzeria Vecio Decimo (Via Roma, 29)

Ristorante-Pizzeria with a good line in a roasted rabbit. Packed with locals, which is always a good sign, with some seating that's sort of outdoors.

Since you're here to see some of the surrounding countryside, it turns out that things are spectacularly and enticingly flat.

Near Quarto d'Altino

That's not a complete surprise since most of it leads to the Venetian Lagoon, you see, and this fertile farmland provides most of the toppings for your quattro stagioni pizza, probably.

Near Quarto d'Altino

The similary, un-undulating Suffolk, say, might also have late running trains but Bury St Edmunds definitely doesn't have what's nearly the Dolomites on the doorstep.

If you've been out of the saddle for 20-odd years, the lack of a hillock and the quiet back roads make this the ideal terrain to reconvene with the velocipede.

Quarto d'Altino - Back in the saddle

Day one training, however, didn't go too well so it looks like the Giro d'Italia will have to put off for at least another year.

  Borgo Cà dei Sospiri (Via Roma, 146)

They've since changed the name from Villa Odino and they've added a restaurant but they haven't hiked up the prices.

Quarto d'Altino - Borgo Cà dei Sospiri

Oh! And they'll still loan you a bike.

  Restaurant Da Odino (Via Roma, 87)

A little bit Alpine-looking and part of the Park Hotel Junior but it's still walkable from your hotel. Until that evening deluge, that is, when they'll happily run you back on the basis of your tip and not that of the other, young, silent, English couple who didn't venture beyond the pizza, probably.

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