Campo de' Fiori

Campo de' Fiori, the field of flowers, is one of the few major squares in central Rome without a church, and that tells you its character: this has always been a working, public, slightly unruly place. A market has been held here for centuries, and every morning except Sunday the stalls go up under white umbrellas, selling vegetables, fruit, flowers, dried pasta, spices and souvenirs. It is more touristic than it once was — Romans do much of their serious shopping at neighbourhood markets elsewhere — but early in the day, with the produce stacked high and locals arguing over artichokes in season, it still has real charm. The square's dark centrepiece is the hooded bronze statue of Giordano Bruno, the philosopher burned at the stake on this spot in 1600 for heresy, erected in 1889 facing the Vatican as a deliberate gesture of free thought. Around the edges are bakeries, wine bars and trattorias; the long-running Forno Campo de' Fiori bakery is famous for its pizza bianca and pizza rossa, sold by weight and eaten standing. After the market packs up, the square fills with café tables, and by night it becomes one of the city's liveliest spots for drinks, popular with students and visitors. Just south, Palazzo Farnese — one of the finest Renaissance palaces in Rome, now the French embassy — faces its own elegant square with twin granite fountains, and the lanes of the Regola district lead toward the Jewish Ghetto and the river.

Come in the morning for the market, ideally before ten when the stalls are freshest and the crowds thinner. Pick up fruit, try the samples, and resist the overpriced spice kits in favour of real produce and a slice of warm pizza bianca. The market packs up around early afternoon, after which the square turns into an open-air dining room. Note that the restaurants directly on the square are geared to visitors; the best eating is in the surrounding streets, especially toward Via dei Giubbonari and the Ghetto. In the evening, Campo is lively and fun, though it can be loud and crowded at weekends; couples looking for quiet should take their aperitivo to Piazza Farnese or the lanes around Via Giulia.

The neighbourhood rewards a slow walk. Via Giulia, laid out in the early sixteenth century as a straight Renaissance avenue, runs parallel to the river behind Palazzo Farnese, with an ivy-hung arch at one end. Palazzo Spada has Borromini's famous forced-perspective colonnade, a small corridor that looks four times longer than it is — a delight for children and adults alike. The Largo di Torre Argentina, a sunken square of Republican temples a few minutes east, contains the area where Julius Caesar was assassinated and is home to a well-known cat sanctuary.

For food lovers, the streets between Campo and the Ghetto are among the best in Rome. Long-established bakeries, salumerias and wine bars line the lanes, and the Ghetto's restaurants serve Roman-Jewish dishes such as carciofi alla giudia, the crisp fried artichoke, when artichokes are in season. Cross the Ponte Sisto footbridge at the end of Via dei Pettinari and you are in Trastevere within minutes, making Campo the hinge between the centro storico and the other side of the river. A good half-day loop runs from the morning market to Palazzo Farnese and Via Giulia, across Ponte Sisto into Trastevere for lunch, and back over the river in the afternoon to Largo Argentina and the Pantheon.