San Marco is a prosperous Southbank neighbourhood built around a Mediterranean Revival town square, San Marco Square, with a pair of lion fountains and a ring of boutique shops and restaurants. It sits on the south bank of the St. Johns, a twenty-minute walk from downtown along the Southbank Riverwalk. The architecture is more self-consciously charming than Riverside, with a studied Italian village quality that can feel a bit stage-set but is nonetheless pleasant.
The neighbourhood has some of Jacksonville's best independent restaurants, and the bookshop on the square is the kind of serious local institution that cities twice Jacksonville's cultural reputation struggle to sustain. On weekend evenings the square fills with people eating outside and watching the fountain.