Rialto and its Markets

I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. What news on the Rialto? Shylock, The Merchant of Venice

The housewives and elderly gents who gravitate here for their daily shopping are continuing one of Venice’s oldest traditions. The Rialto markets have been the city’s centre of trade – and, as such, the real heart of the Republic’s mercantile empire – since the 11th century.

When Venice’s first bank, the Banca Giro, was opened in the 1100s others quickly followed, making the Rialto the medieval equivalent of Wall Street, Europe’s most glittering and powerful exchange, controlling the commercial links between East and West; in its houses incredible fortunes were gambled, won, or lost. ‘All the gold of the Orient passes through the hands of the Venetians,’ grumbled one commentator.