Rialto. L’isola del mercato a Venezia. Una passeggiata tra arte e storia

Abstract

The Rialto island, together with its embankments, squares and market buildings are not a traditional touristic destination. In this area, the most part of the gude-books mention as ‘monument’ only the Rialto Bridge (subject of the typical post-card sent from Venice by millions of visitors), the long building of the Tribunal by Sansovino on the Great Canal, the small church of Saint James (site of a legendary birth of the city) and, at the other side of the Canal, the German warehouse. In reality this is an area where you may make interesting discoveries. For instance you can meet the few holders of a commercial knowledge and of an artisanal culture transmitted since several generations. This book proposes some itineraries

among streets, passageways, sites of minor buildings, with an eye mainly looking to the richness and urban complexity, to the overlapping of activities and trades, to the limits imposed by magistrates in thousand years of history which made it as the real hart of the city of Venice.