Published on: 24 February 2017  | Last updated: 19 May 2019

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Distances
Treviso - Quarto d’Altino	32 kms
Quarto d’Altino - Altino	8 kms
Altino - Punta Sabbioni	48 kms
Altino - Mestre (via Quarto d’Altino)	30 kms

The Girasile is just beautiful. The Girasile park authority and the local author­ities in this area have invested a lot of money (€3.75 million) on new and upgraded sections of the cycleway as well as some bridges.

The stretch out of Treviso is popular with runners and walkers (at least it was on a Saturday morning). The cycleway out of Treviso is tarmac surfaced but this gives way to aggregate for most of the 22 kilometres. It is mainly dedicated traffic-free cycleway but there are some sections of quiet road that are restricted to residents (with a 15 kph limit). There's also a section of boardwalk where you have to get off and walk ('Cicli a Mano' signs).

There aren't a whole lot of places to eat and drink along the cycleway itself: the best bet is probably Casier sul Sile, about 6.5 kilometres out of Treviso, where there's a bar and a trattoria.

A little further on from Casier the Via Claudia crosses the river to Cendon and from there continues by road.This connection is dependent on a ferry boat across the river. If there isn't a ferry then you'll need to continue on the Girasile cycleway until it crosses the river near Casale sul Sile. Or you could simply carry on to Quarto d'Altino on the Girasile.

Altino (Altinum)

The Via Claudia ends at Altino, eight kilometres from modern-day Quarto d’Altino. You leave Quarto d'Altino by the appro­pri­ately-named Via Claudia Augusta and then pick up the Percorso della Memoria — an aggregate-surfaced cycleway/​footpath beside the river Zeno. You can also get to Altino by road.

At Altino you can see the remains of the old Roman city of Altinum. This was where the old Roman road started. Altinum was once a thriving port city that ranked in importance alongside Ravenna and Aquileia (Venezia was estab­lished later by people fleeing to the islands for protection from invaders). Like Aquileia the city was sacked by the army of Attila in 452. The city seems to have recovered after the invasion, but successive waves of invaders from the north lead to the important church insti­tu­tions relocating to the safety of the islands of the Venetian lagoon. Depopulation meant that there were fewer people able to maintain the drainage systems and bit by bit the surrounding area returned to marshland. You can visit the modern museum which was opened in September 2015: Museo Archeologico Nazionale Altino (or MANA for short) and see a section of the old Roman city street.

Getting to Venezia

Quarto d'Altino is about 22 kilometres from Mestre which is, in turn, another 8 kilometres from Venezia. The most direct option from Altino is to follow the SS14. However this is the main road to and from Venezia Marco Polo airport so it's not an ideal choice. An altern­ative is to go back to Quarto d'Altino and than pick up the cycle route that leads from there to Mestre. This route is now the last leg of the München-Venezia cycle route (see München-Venezia: Part 4). (I have included a gpx track and maps for this option in the downloads for the Via Claudia). As a compromise between the two you could take the SS14 over the river Dese and then turn right at the next turning (the Via Paliaga) and then right again onto the Via Litomarino and from there follow the cycle route into Mestre. The cycle route continues south through Mestre and on to Fusina and the Brenta Riviera.

The altern­ative option is to head for Jesolo on the northern end of the Venetian lagoon, and then follow the edge of the lagoon to the Lido di Venezia or Punta Sabbioni and then take a vaporetto into Venezia itself.

  Map of the options for getting to Mestre and Punta Sabbioni:  show map in overlay    |    show map in new window   

Onward connections

You can, of course, continue on from the end of the tour. If you end at Altino you can follow the coastline north into Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and on from there to Trieste, following the Islands and Lagoons of the Adriatic Coast route. Alternatively you can follow it south, skirting round the laguna di Venezia to connect with the river Po cycleway.

Articles in this series

• The Via Claudia in Germany and Austria: Overview
• Via Claudia Part 1: Donauwörth to Landsberg Am Lech
• Via Claudia Part 2: Landsberg am Lech to Füssen
• Via Claudia Part 3: Füssen to Imst
• Via Claudia Part 4: Along the valley of the Inn
• The Via Claudia in Italy: Overview
• Via Claudia Part 5: The Vinschgau
• Via Claudia Part 6: Algund to Trento
• Via Claudia Part 7: Trento to the Lago di Caldonazzo
• Via Claudia 8: San Cristoforo al Lago to Feltre via the Valsugana
• Via Claudia Part 9: the Valsugana cycleway to Bassano del Grappa
• Via Claudia Part 10: San Cristoforo al Lago to Feltre via the Passo Croce d’Aune
• Via Claudia Part 11: Feltre to Treviso
• Via Claudia Part 12: Treviso to Altino (and Venezia
• Via Claudia Part 13: Trento to Verona and Ostiglia