Beside the church of the Madonna dell’Orto stretches an almost unadorned brick façade: it looks like a warehouse, and instead it is the only Venetian building designed by Andrea Palladio that does not resemble Palladio at all. It is the Scuola dei Mercanti, the home of the confraternity of Venice’s merchants under the protection of St Christopher — the giant who carried travellers on his shoulders, a perfect saint for those who crossed the lagoon with their goods.