Rialto Market

Every morning before dawn, while tourists sleep off their Spritz hangovers, boats pull up to the quay beside the Rialto Bridge and unload the night's catch directly onto stone counters. The Rialto Market has operated continuously since 1097, making it nearly a thousand years old and one of the oldest functioning markets in Europe. The fish market — the Pescaria — has been in this spot since at least the 13th century, though the current neo-Gothic loggia was built in 1907.

The market sprawls across two sections: the Pescaria for seafood and the Erberia for fruit and vegetables. The Pescaria is the star — slabs of Mediterranean sea bass, piles of soft-shell crabs (moeche, a Venetian delicacy available only in spring and autumn), cuttlefish with their ink sacs intact, and tiny shrimp from the lagoon. The vendors are theatrical, shouting prices and slapping fish with the performative energy of people whose families have done this for generations.

Restaurant chefs from across the city come here to shop at dawn, and if you want to understand Venetian cuisine, this is the classroom. The bacari — small wine bars — surrounding the market open early for the workers, serving ombra (a small glass of wine) and cicchetti (Venetian tapas) to fishmongers who've been up since 3 AM. It's one of the few places in central Venice where you'll see more locals than tourists before 9 AM.

A fire swept through the Rialto area in 1514, destroying the market buildings and much of the commercial district. The line of buildings you see today dates from the reconstruction, giving the market its current Renaissance character. But the tradition of selling fish on this exact spot survived the fire, as it has survived everything else Venice has thrown at it.