Ponte de le Tette

San Polo & Santa Croce


‘Tits Bridge’ got its name in the late 15th century, when neighbourhood prostitutes were encouraged to display their wares in windows instead of taking their marketing campaigns to the streets. On the east side of the nondescript bridge is the Rio Terà de le Carampane (a filled-in canal), named after a noble family’s house (Ca’ Rampani) that became notorious as a meeting place for local streetwalkers, who to this day are known as carampane.

Instead of hanging out in windows, more-ambitious working girls might be found studying: for educated conversation, courtesans might charge 60 times the basic rate of the average carampane.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby San Polo & Santa Croce attractions

1. Chiesa di San Polo

0.13 MILES

Travellers pass modest St Paul's Church (founded in the 9th century) without guessing that major dramas unfold inside. Under the carena di nave (ship's…

2. Palazzo Mocenigo

0.13 MILES

Venice received a dazzling addition to its property portfolio in 1945 when Count Alvise Nicolò Mocenigo bequeathed his family's 17th-century palazzo to…

3. Fondazione Prada

0.14 MILES

This stately Grand Canal palace – designed by Domenico Rossi and completed in 1728 – has been commandeered by Fondazione Prada, which is renovating the…

4. Ca’ Pesaro

0.16 MILES

The stately exterior of this Baldassare Longhena–designed 1710 palazzo hides two intriguing art museums that could hardly be more different: the Galleria…

5. Pescaria

0.17 MILES

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…

6. Chiesa di San Giovanni Elemosinario

0.17 MILES

Hunkering modestly behind T-shirt kiosks is this soaring brick church, built by Scarpagnino after a disastrous fire in 1514 destroyed much of the Rialto…

7. Chiesa di San Stae

0.18 MILES

The influence of Palladio swirls around neoclassical St Eustace's Church (completed in 1709), from the dazzling white, statue-heavy facade facing the…

8. Rialto Market

0.18 MILES

Venice’s main market has been whetting appetites for seven centuries, with fruit and vegetable stands abutting the rather more pungent Pescaria. To see it…