Shops on the ground floor and flats at the top of a modern "palazzo" are not at all incongruous: historically, the ground floors of even a great family's "palazzo" could be trade and domestic offices often open to servants, tradesmen, customers and the public, while the smartest and most prestigious floor (known as the "piano nobile") was kept for the family along with the upper floors and apartments, all of which were considered cleaner and safer than those on the ground floor. There were (and are) often separate, sometimes external, stairs to the humblest attic rooms and roofs used by the staff.