Slinging fresh fish daily for 700 years and still going strong, Venetian fishmongers are more vital to local cuisine than any single chef. Glistening fish, moscardini (baby octopuses) and seppie (squid) mount hillocks of ice in two open-sided Gothic-style buildings, with crabs, sea horses and fish faces carved into capitals of the supporting columns. Sustainable fishing is not new here: marble plaques show regulations set centuries ago for minimum allowable sizes for fish. Locally caught produce is tagged 'Nostrano'.
Pescaria
San Polo & Santa Croce
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
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Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute
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After losing her father on the Titanic, heiress Peggy Guggenheim became one of the great collectors of the 20th century. Her palatial canalside home,…
Nearby San Polo & Santa Croce attractions
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Venice’s main market has been whetting appetites for seven centuries, with fruit and vegetable stands abutting the rather more pungent Pescaria. To see it…
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Flanking the Grand Canal, this porticoed complex was designed by Jacopo Sansovino in the mid-16th century.
3. Galleria Giorgio Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro
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One of the most beautiful buildings on the Grand Canal, with a lacy Gothic facade, 15th-century Ca’ d’Oro is resplendent even without the original gold…
4. Chiesa di San Giovanni Elemosinario
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This stately Grand Canal palace – designed by Domenico Rossi and completed in 1728 – has been commandeered by Fondazione Prada, which is renovating the…
7. Chiesa di San Giacomo di Rialto
0.12 MILES
Steps away from the Rialto Bridge, the most distinctive feature of 12th-century St James' Church is the 15th-century clock set into the facade facing the…
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The stately exterior of this Baldassare Longhena–designed 1710 palazzo hides two intriguing art museums that could hardly be more different: the Galleria…