Perhaps to get a better view of the heretic burnings, the area around Campo di Fiore became the hot real estate market of medieval Rome. The two ancient families of Rome, the Colonna and Orsini, lived in compounds closer to the papal palaces. These families maintained huge armies of thugs to terrorize each other and the popes, and of necessity had to build heavily fortified palaces near the center of power, the pope. However, as the papacy descended ever further into corruption and farce, many nouveau riche papal families diverted huge sums of the church's money to build lavish palaces in this area. The Farnese family rose to prominence by setting their daughter up as Pope Alexander's mistress, in return for 16 bishoprics. When Alexander died, the mistress's father became pope, which in the middle ages was like winning the lottery. The result is the lavish Farnese Palace, the pink building in the photo (and also the interior shot). Unfortunately it's now the French embassy so you can't see inside. The other photo is of the nearby Palazzo Spada, which is now shared by the Italian government and an art museum. The Spada family never grabbed the gold ring of the papacy, but they did get several cardinals, which was good enough for a pretty nice place.