Rio Terà San Leonardo Market Market

The Rio Terà San Leonardo market is the neighborhood market of western Cannaregio: a few fruit and vegetable stalls set up outdoors along the pedestrian street that leads from the Ponte delle Guglie toward the Strada Nova. Less well known than the Rialto market, it is aimed first at residents, which makes it one of the few places in the historic center where the market retains an ordinary character.

The street itself is a former canal. The rio di San Leonardo, one of the main canals of Cannaregio, was filled in starting in 1818, as part of the 19th-century transformations that gave rise to the Strada Nova, the pedestrian axis linking the station to the Rialto. This is exactly what a rio terà means in Venetian: a buried canal turned into a street.

A neighborhood market

The stalls mainly offer fruit and vegetables, often at more reasonable prices than in the most touristy areas. Near the Ponte delle Guglie, the Pescaria di Cannaregio, a small hall recognizable by its Neo-Gothic architecture, hosts fish stalls. The market is modest and, according to several guides, less well stocked than it once was: it does not replace a visit to the Rialto, but it offers a glimpse of daily life in a neighborhood crossed every day by travelers arriving from the station. The activity is concentrated in the morning.