Venice Rialto and San Polo Self-Guided Audio Walk: Rialto Bridge, Fish Market, Frari and San Rocco

Your Experience

In 1493 a Venetian diarist called the island of Rialto the richest part of the whole world. This walk follows how it earned that: a bridge built with shops in it, a fish market emptied by evening, banks in an open square. See the Rialto Bridge whole from the Riva del Ferro, cross it, and walk the arcades rebuilt after the fire of 1514 to San Giacomo, the Gobbo and the fish hall on the Grand Canal. Then into the quiet lanes of San Polo: the parish where opera first played to a paying public in 1637 and the Republic licensed and confined prostitution, Campo San Polo and the canal behind it, the Frari, and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, where the money became Tintoretto's paintings. Ten stops, about 1.6 km and 60 minutes, with six bridges, all with steps. At your own pace, in English. Admission to the Frari and the Scuola is not included.