Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Don't Miss
Ponte di Rialto
An amazing feat of engineering in its day, Antonio da Ponte's 1592 marble bridge
was for centuries the only land link across the Grand Canal. It cost 250,000 gold
ducats (about €19 million today) - a staggering sum that puts cost overruns for
the new Ponte di Calatrava into perspective. After the crowds of shutterbugs and
tour groups clear out around sunset, the southern side facing San Marco offers
panoramas of a picturesque stretch of the Grand Canal lined with gondolas and
palazzi
(palaces).
Pescaria
Slinging fresh fish for seven centuries and still going strong, the Pescaria's fish-
mongers are more vital to Venetian cuisine than any chef. Starting at 7am, they
sing the praises of today's catch: mountains of glistening
moscardini
(baby oc-
topus), icebergs of inky
seppie
(cuttlefish) and buckets of crabs, from tiny
moeche
(soft-shell crabs) to
granseole
(spider crabs).
The Pescaria was rebuilt in 1907, after constant use had left the earlier structure
salt-corroded. Sustainable fishing practices are not new here: marble plaques
show regulations set centuries ago for minimum allowable sizes for lagoon fish.
Produce Market
Compared with tame supermarket specimens, Veneto veggies look like they landed
from another planet. Tiny purplish Sant'Erasmo
castraure
(baby artichokes) look
like alien heads, white Bassano asparagus seems to have sprouted on the moon,
and red radicchio could be mutant Martian flowers.
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