Ristorante Pancrazio is an old fashioned restaurant from 1922. The interior is the substructure of the Teatro di Pompeo, which was also a temporary meeting place for the Roman Senate and where Julius Caesar was killed. The Theatre of Pompey was big, encompassing the area between the Campo de' Fiori and Largo di Torre Argentina. All around here are great big pieces of this theatre, my favorite being the Passatto del Biscione which is a corridor right outside this restaurant that leads from here to Via di Grotta Pinta, it’s a small former aisle way from inside the theatre that would have led cheerful guests to their seats. Today it’s a corridor between the two neighborhoods which is richly decorated inside and has a small but well lit shrine to the Madonna. ⁣

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Inside the restaurant the exposed brickwork of the downstairs dining room dates from 55 BCE when this was that theatre. ⁣

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Here you can get an elegant Paglia e Fieno pasta, which are strands of green and blonde pasta dressed in a sauce of mushroom, onion, minced prosciutto and cream dusted with parmigiano. ⁣

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For a second course I chose the Involtini di Manzo, beef rolls braised in tomato sauce.