From the San Marco district, the Rialto Bridge crosses the Grand Canal into the San Polo district. This impressive bridge is divided into three walkways, two along the outer balustrades, and a wider central walkway leading between two rows of small shops that sell jewellery, linens, Murano glass, and other items for the tourist trade. This lively area of the city houses the bustling early-morning Rialto markets, the Erberia (vegetable market) and the Pescheria (the fish market) where barges full of produce start arriving at dawn for the morning's trading.
In Venice's heyday, Rialto was one of Europe's leading commercial centres for cloth, cotton, cereals, gold and silver, but today there are mostly designer clothes and shoe shops lining the myriad of back streets that lead to the spacious Campo San Polo. The second largest square in Venice, it used to be a venue for festivities, masquerades, ceremonies and even bull fighting. Today it is one of the principal venues for Carnevale.
On the eastern side of the square stands the Gothic Palazzo Soranzo and on the opposite corner of the square is the Palazzo Cornaro-Mocenigo that was designed around 1550. West of the campo is the Franciscan Church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari which is the central attraction of the area whose collections of art include masterpieces by Titian and Bellini. Titian is also buried in the Frari. Behind the church is the Scuola di San Rocco, whose walls and ceilings are decorated by Tintoretto. Named after the patron saint of diseases, St Roch, the Scuola was originally built as a charitable institution to provide help for orphans and the sick.