San Polo / Santa Croce

What you gain

• ↑The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari is the finest Gothic church interior in Venice: Titian's Assumption of the Virgin (1516) above the high altar, the Bellini Madonna in the Sacristy, and Giovanni Bellini's Pesaro Madonna altar piece together constitute the most concentrated collection of Renaissance masterworks in any single church in Italy
• ↑The Rialto fish market (Tuesday–Saturday mornings, 7:30am–noon) is the most atmospheric daily market in Venice: the 1907 covered market containing the morning's Adriatic catch — cuttlefish, clams, whole turbots, and the seasonal lagoon fish that define Venetian cooking — is the finest direct connection to the city's relationship with the sea
• ↑The bacaro bar circuit in San Polo and Santa Croce — DO Mori, Cantina Do Spade, and the cicheti (small snack) bars on Ruga Vecchia San Giovanni — represents the finest aperitivo and cicheti culture in Venice: standing at the bar with a glass of Veneto white wine and a plate of baccalà mantecato (salt cod cream) is the most characteristically Venetian experience available

What you sacrifice

• ↓San Polo and Santa Croce are maze-like even by Venice standards: the streets between the Frari and the Rialto do not follow a grid and navigation without a good sense of direction requires frequent map consultation
• ↓The proximity to the Rialto Bridge makes the San Polo waterfront busy during peak hours: the area around the Rialto is Venice's busiest, and the streets leading from the bridge into San Polo carry significant tourist traffic