Pleistocene and Holocene samples (peats, organic materials and shells) have been obtained from different cores in the plain of Venice and the lower Po Valley. this material was radiocarbon dated in the range 40,000 B.P. to present. Pleistocene peats provided suitable material for pollen analyses. 1. (1) All the Pleistocene peats give the same relationship between age and depth vs soil surface. The fresh-water level was the same and the accumulation rate of peats reflected the subsidence of the bottom of the basin. 2. (2) Subsidence is not constant during the period of time from which samples were obtained. Between 40,000 and 22,000 B.P. the rate is 1.3 mm/year, very close to the average estimates obtained from corings and geophysical investigations for the whole Quaternary of the region; between 22,000 and 18,000 B.P. the sedimentation rate is 4 to 5 times higher than in the previous period. This strongly subsidence is correlated to the ice accumulation on the Alps. The Pleistocene episode ends with a sedimentation gap, no Pleistocence deposits younger than 17,800 have been evidenced in the area. 3. (3) Pollen from peats indicate five climatic stages: (a) 39,000 BP.: cold adn dry; (b) 38,000–34,000: humid and warm; (c) 33,000: brief setback to a cold and dry steppe; (d) 32,000–23,000: dry; (e) 22,000–18,000: very dry and cold. These different stages can be easily correlated with the climatic fluctuations already shown in other regions of Italy, Spain, France and Greece. 4. (4) The episode of emergence which follows the deposition of the Pleistocene peats corresponds to the formation of an indurated soil rich in carbonates. An age of approximately 14,000 B.P. has been obtained from this level which no longer correspondes to a depostis but to a pedogenesis. 5. (5) The marine part of the upper Pleistocene de[posits shows a unique relationship when the radiocarbon dates are plotted against the present average sea level. The mainland samples, however, do not follow this relationship. They have been elevated by about 20 m for the most northerly location. This effect is attributed to an isostatic rebound, posterior to the melting of the Würmian ice load on the Alps. 6. (6) Because of the eustatic drop of sea level during glaciations, the pre-Holocene landscape was strongly eroded. 7. (7) Continental, coarse and often reworked, deposits are not easily available for a precise stratigraphic reconstruction. 8. (8) Marine deposits do not show a unique correlation between age and depth. The accumulation of sediments at each location is controlled by the morphology over which the Flandrian sea transgressed. At about 3,000 B.P. the transgressive deposits appear more and the sea exceeded its present level.