San Polo is the smallest of Venice’s six sestieri and one of the oldest. For centuries the area around the Rialto was where the Republic did its business; today it mixes great art with ordinary Venetian life. It is where you wake up when you stay at Fraivolti.
Basilica dei Frari, 2 minutes
The big Gothic church of the Franciscans. Above the high altar hangs Titian’s Assumption of the Virgin; inside you also find his Pesaro Altarpiece, his tomb, and the white marble pyramid of Canova’s monument. Go in the morning, when the light comes into the apse.
Scuola Grande di San Rocco, 3 minutes
Just behind the Frari, the home of an old confraternity, covered with more than fifty paintings by Tintoretto, made over more than twenty years. Use the mirrors they hand out to look at the ceilings without hurting your neck.
Campo San Polo
One of the largest squares in Venice, where fairs and festivals used to be held. In the evening children play there and families meet: a good place to see the city the way the people who live here see it.
Rialto
Ten minutes from Fraivolti. From Tuesday to Saturday the market runs in the morning: fruit and vegetables at the Erbaria, fish under the arches of the Pescheria. Next to it are San Giacomo di Rialto, traditionally the oldest church in Venice, and the Rialto Bridge, for centuries the only way to cross the Grand Canal on foot.
Workshops and bàcari
Between the Frari and the Rialto the calli are full of craft workshops, from masks to paper, and of bàcari for a cicchetto and an ombra. My tips are in Eat and drink like a Venetian.
In the evening
A few minutes away, just over the border in Dorsoduro, Campo Santa Margherita is busy in the evening with students from the Ca’ Foscari University. Then back to Calle dei Volti, where it is quiet again.