In the maze of calli (alleys) behind the church of San Cassiano hides a giant: Palazzo Muti Baglioni, twenty-seven metres to the roof, the tallest private building in Venice — and almost impossible to see in its entirety, because it is squeezed into a calle where there is no room even to look at it. It was commissioned in 1602 by the Muti, very rich merchants from Bergamo who to make room bought and demolished the neighbouring buildings: a colossus that already then made an impression, so much so that a chronicler wrote it would have been even more marvellous on the Grand Canal.