San Polo & Santa Croce - the Rialto, the Frari, San Rocco in Venice

Neither of these two districts offers the sweeping, postcard-perfect panoramas that other parts of Venice are famous for, yet both richly deserve a visit. Remember that the tiny island of Rivoaltus - the future Rialto - was among the earliest communities of fishermen and traders from which the city evolved. Step off the Rialto Bridge and you plunge straight into the heart of Venice's working market district, a neighbourhood where a good many genuine locals still live: the city's principal food market functions here to this day, and hidden behind the rows of tourist souvenirs are jewellers' workshops whose craft has given the main street the nickname “Street of Jewelers” for more than five hundred years.

In a nutshell: San Polo and Santa Croce hold the working heart of Venice. The Rialto Bridge and its markets have fed the city for a thousand years; the Frari and San Rocco shelter Titian's Assumption and Tintoretto's great cycle; Campo San Polo is the city's liveliest square; and the food and wine of the bacari is the district's glory. Across in Santa Croce, Ca' Pesaro, Palazzo Mocenigo and the quieter squares and shops round it out.