Venice · San Marco & San Polo
The oldest bridge on the Grand Canal, a stone arch of 1591 lined with shops, with Venice's market at its foot. Watch the fish stalls fill, eat cicchetti at a market bar, then drift under the arch by gondola.
Independent guideTickets and experiences hand-picked by our editors.
Tours
In the centre, the walk with the most reviews, from the station through Cannaregio to the Rialto Market. Either side, two food tours that start a few steps from the bridge. Every card opens a full tour page.
★ 4.82.5 hoursFree cancellationCicchetti, fried snacks and gelato in five stops around the Rialto Market, with a guide who explains what Venetians eat and why. Drinks are extra, so bring a water bottle.
Most booked
★ 4.92 hoursFree cancellationA young Venetian walks you from the station through Cannaregio and the old Ghetto to the Rialto Bridge and market. Quiet canals first, then the crowds, with the stories behind both.
Rialto market
★ 4.94 hoursFree cancellationStart at the fish and produce stalls, then eat your way through the bacari around Rialto, with wine or spritz at every stop. Every one of the latest 30 reviews gives it five stars.
Lowest price
★ 4.62 hours
★ 4.82.5 hours
Private
★ 3.845 minutes
★ 4.71.5 hours
★ 4.01 hour
★ 3.82 hours
★ 3.21 hourCompare
Walking to the bridge costs nothing. You pay for a guide, for the food, or for a seat on the water. And a couple of tours sold with "Grand Canal" in the name never get near it.
| Tour | Where | At Rialto | Best for | Length | From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real Hidden Venice Walking Tour | Starts at San Simeon Piccolo by the station, ends at Rialto Market | Ends at the bridge and market | Quiet Venice first, then Rialto | 2 hours | $45 | Book |
| Venice Street Food Tour with Market Visit | Meets at Campo San Bortolomio, 2 minutes from Rialto Bridge | Starts 2 min away, market visit | Street food on a budget | 2.5 hours | $50 | Book |
| Rialto Market Food and Wine Lunchtime Tour | Meets at San Giacomo di Rialto church, by the bridge | Starts at the market church | A long lunch with wine | 4 hours | $108 | Book |
| San Marco to Rialto Walking Tour with Spritz | Starts near St. Mark's Square, crosses Rialto Bridge | Crosses the bridge | The cheapest guided walk | 2 hours | $16 | Book |
| Cicchetti, Wine and Spritz Tour with Traghetto Ride | Starts at Campo de la Maddalena, Cannaregio, passes Rialto Market | Market bacari + traghetto | Wine lovers, max 10 | 2.5 hours | $102 | Book |
| Private Gondola Ride from Rialto | Gondola station at Riva del Carbon, beside Rialto Bridge | Starts at the Carbon station | A private gondola under the arch | 45 minutes | $321 | Book |
| Grand Canal Boat Tour with a Local Guide | Meets at the Correr Museum, St. Mark's Square | Passes under by motorboat | The whole Grand Canal | 1.5 hours | $113 | Book |
| Venice Walking Tour and Gondola Ride | Meets at San Marco Giardinetti, route passes Rialto Bridge | A stop on the walk | Walk + cheap gondola seat | 2 hours | $69 | Book |
| Small-Group Grand Canal Panoramic Boat Tour | Departs San Marco Giardinetti, passes Rialto Bridge | Passes under by water taxi | A short look from the water | 1 hour | $52 | Book |
| Shared Grand Canal Gondola Ride with Storytelling | Gondola landing at Campo San Moise | No, San Marco side only | The cheapest gondola seat | 1 hour | $42 | Book |
| Private Gondola Ride to Hidden Canals | Gondola station at Piazzale Roma | Only on 90-min and 2-hour rides | Arriving at Piazzale Roma | 30 min to 2 hours | $182 | Book |
Every tour here cancels free up to 24 hours before. The two gondola listings are priced per boat of up to five people; at the gondola stations the city tariff is EUR 90 for 30 minutes by day, also per boat.
Before you book
The Rialto Bridge is a public street. Nobody sells tickets, it never closes, and from St Mark's Square it is a 12-minute walk along the yellow "Per Rialto" signs. Plenty of people stand on the top step for a photo, push back through the crowd and leave without seeing the market twenty metres away.
That gap is where a tour earns its price. The food tours start among the fish stalls and the bacari behind them, where ordering is half the battle. The walks bring you in through quiet Cannaregio or the back of San Marco and tell you why a bridge here mattered. The boats show you the arch from below. Read where each tour really goes, though: the $42 shared gondola stays near San Marco, and the $182 private gondola only reaches Rialto on its 90-minute ride.
The year the stone arch was finished, after earlier wooden bridges burned or collapsed. Until 1854 it was the only way to cross the Grand Canal on foot.
No. The bridge is a public street, open day and night.
Fish stalls Tuesday to Saturday mornings, produce Monday to Saturday.
Day-trippers do, on set days only: 60 in 2026, 72 planned for 2027.
Walk up to the Carbon station: EUR 90 for 30 minutes, per boat.
Your morning
Most tours here fit one of these slots. This is the order that works, with or without a guide.
The fish stalls look their best early, before the tour groups and the midday heat. No fish on Sundays or Mondays.
7:30 to 10:00Walk up the middle lane of shops, then out to the outer balustrade for the long view down the Grand Canal.
15 minutesFrom late morning the bacari behind the market fill their counters. Eat standing and pay by the piece.
From 11:00A gondola from the Carbon station, line 1 down the Grand Canal, or the EUR 2 traghetto at Santa Sofia.
3 to 45 minutesPlan your trip
Market hours, what things cost, the access fee and how to get there: one tab each.
Where it happens
Ponte di Rialto, between the Riva del Vin (San Polo) and the Riva del Ferro (San Marco), 30125 Venezia
The bridge joins the two busiest halves of the city. On the San Polo side, the market and the bacari; on the San Marco side, Campo San Bartolomeo and the shopping streets to St Mark's. Tours meet in different places, so check yours before you set off:
Around your visit
Timing, what locals do differently, the acqua alta question and the fine print.
Venice
Go early. Then pick the tour that adds what you came for.
Check availabilityGuest reviews
★★★★★Basically walked around private areas with very few people around and hear about the life and ways of the locals. If you want a tour without the crowds, book this!
★★★★★Wandering the Rialto Market with a knowledgeable guide, sampling fantastic local food and wine along the way, was the perfect introduction to authentic Venetian cuisine. Everything was fresh, the pours were generous [...]
★★★★★We got to sample a lot of street food and got a history lesson too. I would have never found some of these stops in Venice on my own. It was super cool to see the oldest bar.
★★★★★We had five stops on this tour. Each stop we had wine and a different style of Venetian food. By the third stop I was stuffed! [...] Plus, all stops were locally owned.
★★★★★The meet up location is very central, right next to Rialto bridge, and it is easy to find. There were no lines (we saw some very long ones at other gondola pick ups) [...]
★★★★★COMPLETELY different city at night. There were some portions of the ride where it seemed like we were the only people in town! The reflecting lights on the canal were magical.
★★★★★Lovely walk with lots of information & stories from our guide, seeing places we'd never have found on our own
★★★★★We absolutely loved the boat tour around Venice. We were originally contemplating if we wanted to do a gondola ride instead, but are so happy we chose the Boat tour.
★★★★★Gondola is 30 min trip on grand canal then some small canals. This is much cheaper than a full separate gondola ride. [...] Overall good value and a good orientation start.
Arriving by bus, car or train?
The quiet side canals from the bus terminal, with Rialto on the longer rides.
Handy if you arrive by bus, car or train: the gondola stand is at Piazzale Roma, and the side canals of Santa Croce and Dorsoduro are quiet. Book the 90-minute or 2-hour ride if you want to see Rialto; the $182 half hour turns back long before it.
Private boatUp to 5 peopleNight rates
The guide
Rialto was the commercial heart of the Venetian Republic, where bankers, merchants and fishmongers did business side by side. The bridge, the market and the lanes around them still run on buying, selling and eating.
The Grand Canal narrows at Rialto, and the high bank on the San Polo side ("rivo alto") was where the first merchants settled. A bridge of boats crossed here from 1181. Wooden bridges followed: one burned in the revolt of 1310, another fell in 1444 under a crowd watching a wedding procession for the Marquis of Ferrara, and a third gave way in 1524. In 1587 the city held a contest for a stone bridge. Antonio da Ponte won, and his single arch went up between 1588 and 1591. The architect Vincenzo Scamozzi predicted it would collapse. It never has.
For more than 250 years it was the only way across the Grand Canal on foot. The first Accademia bridge came in 1854.
The two rows of shops on top are as old as the idea of the bridge itself. The Republic rented them out and the money went to the state, which helped pay for the thing. Today they sell jewellery, leather, glass and masks, at prices that reflect the rent. Walk the middle lane once for the atmosphere, then use the outer lanes: that is where the view is, up the Grand Canal towards Ca' Foscari or down towards the Fondaco dei Tedeschi.
The bridge had its first full restoration in about 400 years in 2015 and 2016, paid for by the OTB fashion group. The scaffolding came down for good, and the stone you walk on is almost all original.
Cross to San Polo and turn right. The Erbaria, the produce market, opens Monday to Saturday; the Pescheria behind it, a neo-Gothic loggia from 1907, sells Adriatic fish Tuesday to Saturday mornings. Next to them is San Giacomo di Rialto, said to be the oldest church in the city, and the stooped stone figure of the Gobbo di Rialto, who holds up the steps to the stone where the Republic's laws were read out. The lanes behind are full of bacari, the standing-room wine bars where Venetians eat cicchetti with a small glass of wine before lunch.
From below, the bridge looks bigger and more daring. The cheapest way is vaporetto line 1, which runs the whole Grand Canal and passes under the arch. A gondola from the Carbon station costs EUR 90 for half an hour by day for the whole boat. The EUR 2 traghetto at Santa Sofia, a few minutes upstream, puts you in a gondola for the length of one crossing. Small-group boats add a guide; the motorboat tour keeps it to eight people.
Guides
In-depth guides to the questions people ask most before a visit. See all guides.
Market hoursWhen the fish and produce stalls are open, and what they sell.
Cicchetti barsThe bacari by the market, what to order and what it costs.
Gondola pricesThe official tariff, the two Rialto stations and prebooked rides.
Getting thereWalking routes, vaporetto stops, fares and the airport boat.The bridge itselfFree, open all night: history, shops, views and steps.
Walking toursA free route to follow alone, or a guide: what each adds.From the blog
Rule changes, tides and dates that move from year to year. All posts.
FAQ
Straight answers to what people ask most about the Rialto Bridge and its tours.
Yes. It is a public footbridge, open day and night, and nobody charges you to cross it or stand at the balustrade. You pay for a tour only if you want a guide, food or a boat. On 60 days in 2026 (72 planned for 2027), day-trippers paid the city's access fee to enter Venice, but that is not a bridge ticket.
The official city tariff is EUR 90 for 30 minutes by day and EUR 110 for 35 minutes after 7 p.m., per gondola of up to five people. The Carbon station on the San Marco side of the bridge charges exactly that. Prebooking a private 45-minute ride online costs from $321 a boat. See the gondola price guide.
The fish market (Pescheria) runs Tuesday to Saturday, about 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and is shut on Sundays and Mondays. The fruit and vegetable stalls (Erbaria) open Monday to Saturday mornings. Go before 10 for the full show. Details in Rialto Market hours.
On foot, follow the yellow "Per Rialto" signs: about 25 to 30 minutes from the train station and 10 to 15 from St Mark's Square. By water, vaporetto line 1 stops at Rialto and Rialto Mercato, line 2 at Rialto; a 75-minute ticket costs EUR 9.50. Our getting there guide has the routes.
Only for what it adds. A food tour gets you into the bacari and market stalls with someone who orders for you; a walking tour adds the history and the quiet lanes; a boat shows you the bridge from below. To just see the bridge, walk. Our free route vs guided tours guide compares them.
The San Marco to Rialto walk, from $16 for two hours with a guide and a group of 15 at most. The spritz break and the shared gondola in its title are paid options. Cheaper still: the EUR 2 traghetto gondola across the Grand Canal at Santa Sofia, a short ride that lands at the fish market.
In the lanes behind the market on the San Polo side, where the old bacari put out trays of crostini, fried fish and meatballs from late morning. Expect EUR 1.50 to 4 a piece and a small glass of wine for a few euros. Our cicchetti guide explains how to order.
No. That $42 shared ride boards at Campo San Moisè near St Mark's and loops through the canals by La Fenice and the mouth of the Grand Canal. It never reaches Rialto. For a gondola that starts at the bridge, see the private ride from Rialto or walk up to the Carbon station.
Early: before 9 a.m. the shops are shut, the light is soft and the steps are nearly empty. Evening is the second best, once the day-trippers leave. Midday on a weekend is the worst. More in our Rialto Bridge visitor guide.
Sometimes, in the acqua alta season from October to January. The banks either side of the bridge are among the lower parts of Venice: the Erbaria floods from about 75 to 80 cm, and the MOSE barriers only go up for much higher forecasts. See acqua alta this winter.
Twenty-five at most. Since 2024 the city caps guided groups at 25 and bans loudspeakers, so guides use whisper headsets. Most tours here are smaller: 14 on the food tours, 10 on the cicchetti tour, 8 on the motorboat.
Every tour on this site cancels for a full refund up to 24 hours before the start. One exception to watch: the motorboat tour says the boat operator may cancel for bad weather without a refund.
Ready to book
Small groups by law, and free cancellation up to 24 hours before on every tour.
More: the $16 San Marco walk · a private gondola from Rialto · a cicchetti and wine evening
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