On the wall of the house, high up between two windows, four crowned figures stand in a row inside a slab of Istrian stone, and below an inscription says it all: ’1652, scola di tagiapiera’ (guild of stonecutters). It is the sign of one of the oldest corporations of Venice, the confraternity of the stonemasons — those who squared the Istrian stone with which the city dressed itself in palaces, churches and vere da pozzo (wellheads).