The fondamenta (a canalside walkway) that gives its name—or rather takes it from the district—runs along the Cannaregio Canal, the city’s “second” waterway, from the Ponte delle Guglie to the Ghetto. The name itself tells a story: far from being a Canal Regio, this was once a place of reed beds and marshland, as a chronicle from 1410 records. At low tide, the little Osellino, or Marzenego, stream still flowed through the canal.