Pescaria

Slinging fresh fish daily for 700 years and still going strong, Venetian fishmongers are more vital to local cuisine than any single chef. Glistening fish, moscardini (baby octopuses) and seppie (squid) mount hillocks of ice in two open-sided Gothic-style buildings, with crabs, sea horses and fish faces carved into capitals of the supporting columns. Sustainable fishing is not new here: marble plaques show regulations set centuries ago for minimum allowable sizes for fish. Locally caught produce is tagged 'Nostrano'.