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Venice attracts some 20,000,000 tourists a year. Add in a local population of roughly 60,000, and you're talking about a big appetite for groceries. Since the year 1097, Venetians have depended on the Rialto markets for their daily supplies of fish, vegetables, fruit, and other foodstuffs. The markets in Venice are open to the public, and there's no better show in town. Stevedores unload crates of produce from barges; vendors hawk their wares; hotels restaurant chefs examine the daily supply of fish, crustaceans, and bivalves; delivery men push handcarts laden with fruit and vegetables.It's best to arrive early if you want to see the Erberia (vegetable market) and Pescheria (fish market) in full swing. The barges start arriving at dawn, and the vendors are bargaining with customers by 8 or 9 a.m. The wholesalers and most of the retailers close up shop by midday, so stock up on fruit and photo opportunities before lunch! Piazza San Marco as "beautiful at all times of day or night and all seasons of the year. It is one of the few delicate works of architecture that can absorb a bustling vulgar crowd without loss of dignity; a great city square which retains a feeling of animation when there are few people in it."Jan Morris, the noted travel writer who lived for several years in Venice, says "the great Piazza of St. Mark's is at its very best on a hot day early in summer, when visitors from the four corners of the earth are inspecting its marvels, and Venice is one great itchy palm." Morris adds: "The patterned floor of the Piazza is thick with pigeons, and two or three women at little trestle stalls are invitingly rattling their packets of maize. On every step or balustrade, on the ledges around the base of the Campanile, on the supports of the two columns of the Piazzetta, around the flagstaffs, beside the little porphyry lions wherever there is a square foot of sitting space, hundreds of young people have settled like birds, spreading their skirts and books around them." Napoleon called the Piazza San Marco "the finest drawing room in Europe." That description may have been a little off base there's no ceiling, and where's the sofa? But the fact remains that St. Mark's is a far nicer place for sitting than the average living room or Venice hotels lobby. What's more, the square is bordered by historic buildings and represents the focal point of Venice's water transport system. Toss in pigeons and outdoor caffès, and you've got a spot that Thomas Coryate described as "the fairest place of all the citie" in 1611--the year when the King James Bible was first published
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