Old Stone Faces

There is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled "The Great Stone Face" which I remember being assigned by a teacher who scared me more than any teacher I ever had. As I remember her, she generally wore an expression of menace and she never smiled. In my mind, she was the real "Stone Face," though she could have also been a double for the Wicked Witch of the North in The Wizard of Oz.Of course all of this has nothing to do with this photo, though there are faces portrayed in stone. Where is this? Venice. Who are these people? If I had been listening to our tour guide instead of taking photos, I might know. But I do know that all of these stoney people look friendlier than my scary teacher.

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