Together with
Castello it’s the largest of the sestieri of Venice.
Really there is an open-war between the two sestieri for who is the largest, because
Cannaregio has the highest street numbers but Castello has S. Elena with a different numeration.
Cannaregio starts from the other side of the canal of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, the bridges are the border line, and goes down to the train station.
The name has two different explanations: for the first it comes from
Canal Regio, Royal Canal, that once provided the access to the city from the main land; for the second it comes from Canna Regio, area of cane-brake.
