Student Journals: AIFS in Rome, Italy

Emily Salveson
University of San Diego
Richmond in Rome, Italy

Then and Now: Campo de’ Fiori

A lively piazza located just off of Via Guilia in the center of Rome, Campo de’Fiori is always bustling with activity. Local flower vendors set up shop each morning, tenderly arranging bouquets and single stems in large vases set down on the cobblestones. The splashes of color the flowers create are reminiscent of impressionist paintings depicting spring in bloom. Merchants erect tents while locals sleep in on weekend mornings, patiently attending their goods while waiting for the day to begin. Rambunctious and eager dogs scamper about, investigating the scene as if they are seeing it for the first time. Shutters across the alleyways open up in wide yawns to greet the day and the locals flow out slowly and elegantly, having reserved enough time before work for a cornetto and a cappuccino.

A flock of nuns in white habits seems to float just above the ground. Together they are in fluid motion across the piazza, the epitome of unison and grace. Languid Italian women with smirks and Gucci purses catwalk down the long corridor leading from Corso Vittorio Emanuele II to Piazza Farnese, eliciting stares and whistles as they pass. From my window I know the day has begun when I hear the click-clack of well-heeled Roman women in Campo. School children laugh and yell as they ramble down the streets, their shoes tied tight and sturdy, bright backpacks bouncing along as they play. Tourists nervously clutch their maps and guidebooks as they try to find their way, their money-belts securely fastened beneath their clothes. Elderly and adorable Italian grandmothers are hunched-over but dressed fabulously. Gypsy children and beggars litter the off-shooting alleyways, trying to make some money (one way or another). During the day, restaurants’ chairs and tables overflow into the piazza and patrons spend the afternoon sipping glasses of house wine and people-watching. Upon nightfall, the restaurants that surround the square turn into watering holes for study abroad students and younger Italians. It is a classic and wild scene.

Despite its status as a modern hub of Roman life and culture, Campo de’Fiori still retains much of its history. Its name means field of flowers, as it was once a meadow facing the Theater of Pompey. The piazza’s market in modern times was a similar scene centuries ago in medieval and Renaissance times, with foreigners, cardinals, fish merchants, and noblemen greeting friends, conducting business, bargaining, and making purchases in one another’s unlikely company. The former atmosphere is not difficult to imagine when viewing the piazza today. The statue of philosopher Giordano Bruno in the center of the piazza memorializes his execution there in 1600; he was burned at the stake for heresy. The prosperous 15th century mistress of Pope Alexander VI Borgia, courtesan Vannozza Catanei, owned many of the inns that surrounded the piazza. The coats of arms of both the mistress Catanei and her lover are visible on Catanei’s shield on the corner between the piazza and Via del Pellegrino.

A fascinating and vivacious piazza, Campo de’ Fiori remains overall much as it was during the Renaissance and medieval times. From the window of my apartment I see the ebb and flow of Romans, students, foreigners, and tourists and hear the multilingual conversations wafting through the streets. Turning my gaze up toward the ornately decorated ceiling, I imagine the person who lived in my Renaissance apartment many years ago had many similar observations.