The Rialto News
This 1400's news site, The Rialto News, is named after the Rialto bridge in Venice. In Renaissance Venice, people who wanted news and gossip headed for the commercial district near the Rialto bridge, a central passage through this town of canals. The Rialto's reputation as a meeting place spread so widely that in the late 1500's, English audiences heard a character in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice ask, "What news on the Rialto?"