The Field of Flowers

Rome's Campo de' Fiori is an outdoor market by morning, party central by night

In the Middle Ages, this campo dei fiori ("meadow of flowers") was where the most important executions took place. That dour dude in a hood frowning down from the central pedestal was one of the victims, a monastic philosopher whose enlightened ideas didn't sit well with the Church, so they had him executed as a heretic on this spot in 1600—just all part of that's year's papal Jubilee celebrations!

All morning long, the piazza hosts—as it has for ages—a market of fresh flowers and produce. By noon, all that's left are scraps washed into the gutters by the public drinking fountains, and the square is populated by tourists all afternoon.

In the evening, the campo becomes the epicenter of central Rome's nightlife, with local youth and international students spilling out of the dozen pubs, bars, and birrerie that have sprung up over the past decade (the one marked simply "Vineria" is the only authentic, old-school wine bar in the mix) and turning the entire piazza into one giant nightly party.

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