Honest Woman Street in San Polo in Venice

Near the headquarters of the University Ca' Foscari of Venice, there is a lovely street  by a really unusual name: the Honest Woman.

There are various stories and legends about the origins of this name; according to some there was a swordsmith's shop and a man who took a fancy to his wife commissioned a dagger and with the excuse of going to pick it up he went into the shop and raped the woman, who, being an honest person, for the shame took her own life with the same dagger.

According to others, two friends who lived nearby spoke about the fidelity of the woman and one of them, pointing to the picture on the wall of stone, said that if someone was looking for an honest woman she was the only one existing on earth! Still others argue that a famous prostitute had lived and worked there, who had treated her customers in an honest way.

Apart from all the strange stories related to the enigmatic stone face, it seems that historically it has been established that, in 500, a woman who really was called Honest did live there...

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