Field of flowers

Campo de’ Fiori (Field of flowers) is a rectangular square south of Piazza Navona in Rome, at the border between rione Parione and rione Regola. It is diagonally southeast of the Palazzo della Cancelleria and one block northeast of the Palazzo Farnese. Campo de’ Fiori, translated literally from Italian, means “field of flowers”. The name dates to the Middle Ages when the area was a meadow. Flower stalls, cafes, and throngs of tourists now mill about Italy’s Campo de Fiori, but in the center of the square is a tall plinth topped with the grim brass statue of Giordano Bruno, a 16th century friar and philosopher who was burned at the stake for his forward-thinking. In 1889 the current monument to the philosopher was erected.