Cinema Aquila

The Cinema Aquila, which today is called Nuovo Cinema Aquila, is open and shows films every day at Via L'Aquila 66/74, in Pigneto, in Municipio V. It is a cinema owned by Roma Capitale, created in a building confiscated from organized crime and given in free concession to an operator chosen through a public notice. Tickets are bought only at the cinema's box office: according to the Roman press, at the end of September 2026 full price is €7.50 and the reduced ticket €6.

It is not a monument to visit outside screenings, nor a museum on the fight against the mafia. It is a neighborhood cinema with three screens, art-house programming, original-language films with subtitles and festivals, and it should be treated that way: you pick a film, arrive 15 minutes early, buy the ticket at the desk. You carry the building's history with you, because you can't read it on the facade of an ordinary cinema.

Data checked on September 29, 2026 on the cinema's official website, on the Roma Capitale tourism portal, on the Roma Culture page dedicated to the 2025-2026 season and on the public documents of the concession. For box office hours, discounts and seat availability the right channel is the operator: phone 06 45541398, email info@cinemaaquila.it. The cinema's website publishes film titles and screening times every week.

At a glance: address, hours, ticket

• Address: Via L'Aquila 66/74, 00176 Rome, Pigneto neighborhood, Municipio V.
• Ownership and management: property of Roma Capitale in free concession. The official website signs as Nuovo Cinema Aquila.
• Status: open, with daily programming in the 2025-2026 season.
• Tickets: only at the box office. According to the press, €7.50 full price and €6 reduced in September 2026.
• Hours: those of the individual screenings, published on the website. Box office hours not published.
• Contacts: 06 45541398, info@cinemaaquila.it.
• How to get there: metro C, Pigneto stop, then on foot. The tourism portal lists the cinema as accessible.

Where it is and what you really see

The cinema stands at the corner of Via L'Aquila and Via Ascoli Piceno, in the part of Pigneto that faces Piazzale Prenestino. It is an area of low apartment buildings and public housing, narrow streets, local shops and places open late. The cinema doesn't dominate the street: it is a corner building you recognize by the entrance and the posters, more than by the architecture.

Administratively the cinema now belongs to Municipio V, as the Roma Culture page on the current season indicates. In the reports of the 2008 inauguration, the reference was instead Municipio Roma 6, with the old numbering of Rome's districts. Anyone looking for documents and resolutions from the 2000s must keep this change in mind, otherwise they risk not finding the records of the construction work and the first management.

Inside, according to the concession notice approved by Roma Capitale in 2018, the spaces cover about 928 square meters spread from the basement to the third floor: three screening rooms, the projection booths, a cafe bar and the offices. The Roma Capitale tourism portal lists the internal bar, air conditioning and accessibility for people with disabilities. A listing published in 2013 also mentioned elevators, reserved seats in all the rooms and equipped restrooms.

What you really see is a contemporary cinema, redone from top to bottom in the 2000s. Anyone looking for stucco, velvet and painted ceilings of a historic theater will be disappointed. Anyone looking for a comfortable room, with thoughtful programming and a neighborhood audience, finds what they need. The building's history, meaning the confiscation and the conversion, isn't written on the walls in a showy way: you have to know it before going in.

Around it, Pigneto is a neighborhood born up against the railway and the consular roads, between Via Prenestina and Via Casilina. The cinema is a short distance from the Pigneto station of metro C and from the pedestrian zone of Via del Pigneto, where bars and evening venues are concentrated. Anyone arriving from the center almost always passes through Porta Maggiore, the big knot of arches, tracks and trams at the entrance to the neighborhood.

The cinema works mostly in the evening, but the programming often begins in the afternoon. On festival and series days the entrance fills with students, filmmakers and an industry crowd. On weekday evenings the audience is largely residents, and the atmosphere is that of a neighborhood cinema, with people who know each other and stop to talk outside after the film.

A curiosity about the Cinema Aquila

The notice with which Roma Capitale awarded the cinema in 2018 didn't only ask for films to be shown. It set a minimum opening obligation of 345 days a year starting from the second year of operation, with a time slot between 9 in the morning and 23:30. For a neighborhood cinema it is a heavy commitment: it means staying open almost all year, even in the summer months when many Roman cinemas pull down the shutter.

The same document asked the concessionaire for a bank or insurance guarantee of €100,000 and policies for liability, fire and theft. The property, in fact, remains the City's and is part of its unavailable assets: whoever runs it doesn't pay rent, because the concession is free, but answers for the cinema, the equipment and its opening. It's a different balance from that of a private cinema.

There is a second detail almost nobody notices. The cinema's official website carries, at the bottom of the page, the reference to a public notice from Regione Lazio called "Teatri, Librerie e Cinema Verdi e Digitali", with a determination of December 20, 2019 tied to the European program POR FESR Lazio 2014-2020. The title of the notice already states the goal: more sustainable and more digital cultural venues, including in the suburbs.

The address, too, has changed form over time. The 2013 listing from the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico gave Via L'Aquila 68, with a different phone number and an email address ending in .com. Today the official website and the Roma Capitale tourism portal give Via L'Aquila 66/74, the phone 06 45541398 and the .it domain. Anyone who finds the old contact details online knows they belong to the first management.

The name, on the other hand, has stayed almost the same. The building was known as Cinema Aquila, after the street it's on, and at the 2008 reopening it became Nuovo Cinema Aquila, a name confirmed even after the second reopening in 2018. It is registered under this name today by the Roma Capitale tourism portal, Roma Culture and the official website: anyone looking for the cinema on maps and listing portals finds the full form more easily.

Something nobody tells you about the Cinema Aquila

The most widespread story is simple: a cinema taken from organized crime and given back to the neighborhood. It's true, but it leaves out the most instructive part. Between the final confiscation in 2002 and the first reopening in 2008, six years passed of projects, funding and construction. Between the closure in June 2015 and the reopening in May 2018, almost three passed. The cinema was closed longer than many remember.

This says something about confiscated properties in general. Returning them to the community is not a single act but ongoing work: calls for bids, rankings, guarantees, inspections, renewals. A cinema consumes energy, staff and audience every evening, and if one of these is missing, the cinema stops. In Pigneto it happened, and reopening took a new public notice and pressure from the neighborhood committees.

The opposing view, in our opinion, is this: it's a mistake to treat Nuovo Cinema Aquila as a symbol to visit for its anti-mafia history. Anyone who goes only for that risks looking at a facade and leaving. The cinema holds up, or doesn't, on the tickets sold. The most serious way to respect its history is to buy one, sit down and watch a film, not to photograph the entrance.

There is also a practical misunderstanding. Many think a public cinema shows only documentaries and free-admission series. That's not so: the regular programming is paid, with art-house first runs, original-language films and titles from normal distribution. Free evenings exist, but they are specific events, like screenings by film students or some series, and should be looked for on the cinema's website.

How did a confiscated building become a public cinema?

The cinema dates from the postwar period: the reconstructions published by a project on the regeneration of the suburbs and by a magazine in 2016 date the building to after 1944. The same magazine writes that between the 1960s and the 1980s it became an adult-film house, and that later there was an attempt to turn it into a shopping center, before it was abandoned.

Then comes the confiscation. According to the listing published in 2013 by the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico, the building was seized in 1998 and definitively confiscated on October 8, 2002. It was registered in the name of a front woman tied to organized crime circles. The property passed to the City's assets under law 109 of March 7, 1996 on the social reuse of confiscated properties, at the request of the City Council to the Ministry of Justice.

The recovery was funded by the city administration, through the department that at the time handled policies for the suburbs. The regeneration project lists allocations in 2002 and 2004, €170,000 for design and €1,780,000 for the works. The architectural design bears the signature of Riccardo Magagnini, the direction of works that of Pietro Scaglione. The renovated structure was completed in 2007.

The project called for a large room on the ground floor and two smaller rooms on the second floor, plus spaces for neighborhood courses and meetings. The idea was clear from the start: not just screenings, but a civic center with the screen as its engine. It's the same idea that returns in the 2018 notice, which assigns the concession to cultural and film purposes and not to a mere commercial business.

The first management went to the consortium Sol.Co., Solidarietà e Cooperazione, which according to the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico brought together 57 social cooperatives and was founded in 1985. In 2013 the running of the cinema was entrusted to Fabio Meloni. The programming ran from art-house cinema to major-distribution films, and the rooms were also rented for conferences and press events.

Between 2015 and 2018 the cinema went through a long interregnum. According to press reconstructions from 2016, the first public notice after the closure led to no award, because none of the four bidders was judged suitable. Il Fatto Quotidiano wrote, in August 2016, that the property had temporarily returned to the administration's availability, awaiting a new notice to give it to a new cooperative.

Since 2018 the cinema has been in free concession to the cooperative that won the new public notice, with a six-year contract. Who runs it after that expiry is not confirmed by an official source: the cinema's website simply signs as Nuovo Cinema Aquila and doesn't give the company name. To know for sure, it's best to write to the cinema's email address or ask 060608 of Roma Capitale.

My advice for visiting the Cinema Aquila

My advice is to choose the film first and the neighborhood after. The cinema's website publishes the week's programming, with titles, times and rooms. It's best to check it the same morning, because on festival and special-event days the times change. Then arrive a little early, since tickets are bought only at the desk and the small rooms fill quickly.

For those traveling from outside Rome, the cinema has a concrete advantage: it often shows films in the original language with Italian subtitles. The Roma Capitale tourism portal says so explicitly. For anyone who doesn't speak Italian well it's one of the simplest ways to go to the movies in Rome without dubbing. The advice is to look on the website for the original-version label next to the showtime.

The best evening is a weekday, between Monday and Thursday. The neighborhood is quieter, the cinema less crowded, and after the film you find a table for dinner without long waits. On Friday and Saturday Pigneto fills with people until night, and the exit from the cinema coincides with the peak hour of the bars. Anyone looking for a calm evening picks the start of the week.

Anyone who wants to understand the property's history before going in does well to read something about the 1996 law and the social reuse of confiscated properties. Inside the cinema there is no visitor route, and the staff work to keep the screenings running. Questions about the history are better asked by email, to the operator, or during the meetings with filmmakers and guests that accompany series and festivals.

A last piece of advice concerns time. Between the desk, the film and the exit you need a couple of hours, plus the metro ride. So it's best to build the evening backward: first the choice of the show, then dinner before or after, then the trip home. Anyone who puts the cinema at the end of a day full of sightseeing risks arriving tired, and an original-language film takes attention.

How much is a ticket and how do you buy it?

The official website of the Nuovo Cinema Aquila is clear on one point: tickets are bought exclusively at the cinema's box office. There is no online sale on the website, and no ticketing circuits indicated by the operator appear. The full price list is not published in the pages that open freely: for discounts and cards the reference is the phone 06 45541398 or the address info@cinemaaquila.it.

On prices, the most recent indication comes from the press. A Roman online daily of September 29, 2026 gives for the cinema €7.50 for full price and €6 for reduced. At the 2018 reopening the Dire news agency reported lower rates: €6 on weekdays, €7 on holidays and weekends, €4 for festivals and series. The real price is read at the box office, on the sign at the desk.

Some events are free. In April 2026, for example, the series by students of the Rome University of Fine Arts took over the cinema for three days with free admission until seats ran out. The cinema's website flags free evenings with a dedicated label. Even in those cases access is first come, first served, with no reservation: it's best to show up early, especially if guests and filmmakers are in the room.

There are no tours or combined tickets tied to the cinema, and there is no point in looking for them. No tourist platform sells an entry to Nuovo Cinema Aquila, and a generic Pigneto tour doesn't give access to the cinema. The only channel is the direct one: you choose the show on the website, go to the desk, pay. For events with limited seats, the operator gives the arrangements case by case.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely mentioned

That the cinema is a confiscated property, many people know. Less often cited is that without the neighborhood it would never have reopened, neither the first time nor the second. According to a reconstruction published in 2016, a residents' committee fought for the cinema's recovery for 11 and a half years, from 1996 to 2007, before the construction work reached its end and the doors reopened.

The story repeated itself after the 2015 closure. In August 2016 Il Fatto Quotidiano told of the mobilization of Pigneto residents, with the Pigneto Vivo committee and the filmmaker Francesco Bernabei among the promoters, to get the City to reopen it and to choose the new operator transparently. In those months the cinema was closed, awaiting a new public notice.

The contract signed in 2018 puts this idea in writing. The Roma Capitale notice describes the concession as intended for cultural and film purposes, and sets precise obligations on opening, hours and guarantees. The cinema must work almost all year, because a closed confiscated property is a public defeat. This is also why the cinema hosts festivals, schools and series alongside the regular programming.

At the 2018 reopening the Campidoglio presented the cinema as the result of a participatory process between institutions and citizens. On the same occasion there was talk of the possibility of turning the outdoor space into a traffic-free square. The cinema, in short, is not just a public venue: it is one of the places where Pigneto learned to deal with the administration, and it remembers it.

The right photo to take at the Cinema Aquila

The photo that tells the story of the cinema is taken from the other side of the street, at the corner of Via L'Aquila and Via Ascoli Piceno, with the entrance, the posters and a piece of the neighborhood around. It works best at sunset or after dark, when the entrance is lit and people start to arrive. By day the building looks like an ordinary apartment block, and the photo loses its meaning.

The second photo is the poster for the evening, with the film's title and the showtime. It seems trivial, but it's the most honest proof of the place: a cinema that works, with a real program, in a building that for years was closed. You take it from outside, next to the entrance, without getting in the way of people going in. It's a small keepsake and more sincere than any staged shot.

Inside the rooms, during screenings, you don't photograph or film. It's a rule of every cinema, and here it also applies out of respect for the audience, often made up of people from the neighborhood. On evenings with meetings and filmmakers in the room the operator may take photos for its own communication, but for the audience the rule stays the same: phone off or in your pocket until the lights come back on.

A third, wider photo ties the cinema to its neighborhood. From Via L'Aquila you move toward Via del Pigneto and photograph the pedestrian street with its murals and its bars. Put together, the two images tell better than a caption what it means to have a public cinema in a lively neighborhood, where the cinema is one of the evening's meeting points.

How do you get there from central Rome?

The simplest way is metro C. The Pigneto station, opened on June 29, 2015, is on Via del Pigneto and links the neighborhood with San Giovanni and, outward, with Centocelle and the eastern suburbs. From the station you reach the cinema on foot, crossing the neighborhood's streets to Via L'Aquila. Coming from metro A you change at San Giovanni.

From the Termini station area you can also arrive with the trams that continue from Porta Maggiore along Via Prenestina. Routes, line numbers and stops change often because of works, and it's best to check them the same day on the ATAC website. From Porta Maggiore, for those who feel like walking, you reach the cinema on foot following the streets of Pigneto.

From San Lorenzo you go down toward Porta Maggiore, along the railway, and then enter Pigneto. It's an urban route, among tracks, underpasses and busy intersections, suited to those who already have some familiarity with the city. In the evening it's better to prefer public transport or a taxi, especially on leaving the last show, when service is less frequent.

By car the cinema is not convenient. Pigneto has narrow streets, a pedestrian zone and parking that is always full in the evening, and the streets around Piazzale Prenestino are very busy at peak hours. Anyone arriving from outside Rome by car is better off leaving it near a more outlying station of metro C and continuing by metro to the Pigneto stop.

For the trip back, in the evening, the advice is to check in advance the time of the last metro C run and of the night services on the ATAC website, because they change between weekdays and weekends. After the 21:00 show you usually come out around 23:00, and at that hour the neighborhood is still very lively. Anyone staying far away can consider a taxi from Piazzale Prenestino or from Porta Maggiore.

Some important events that happened here in history

The documented history of the property begins with the seizure of 1998 and the final confiscation of October 8, 2002, dates reported by the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico. Before that came law 109 of March 7, 1996, which allows municipalities to request properties taken from criminal organizations and assign them to social uses. It is the legal framework that allowed the City to request the building and turn it into a public cinema.

The first inauguration of Nuovo Cinema Aquila dates to 2008, but the sources don't agree on the date. The suburban regeneration project gives May 23, 2008. The local chronicle of Abitare a Roma instead recounts the ceremony of June 19, 2008, with the president of the Municipio, the Government's special commissioner for confiscated properties and the councilors of the City and the Region. The certain fact is the year, and that the cinema opened with three screens and the management of the Sol.Co. consortium.

In May 2014 the first management's financial troubles began, according to the reconstruction published in 2016. On June 9, 2015 the cinema closed, after the City revoked the concession for administrative irregularities alleged against the operator. A new public notice in the same year led to no award: according to the same source, none of the four bidders was judged suitable.

On April 26, 2018 an executive determination of Roma Capitale gave the cinema in free concession to the cooperative Cinema Mundi, for six years. The cinema reopened on May 26, 2018 with the 32nd Festival del Cinema Latino Americano di Trieste, according to the Dire news agency, which gave May 27 as the date of the reopening to the public. The cinema had been closed since June 2015, almost three years.

The regional determination tied to the notice on green and digital theaters, bookstores and cinemas, funded with European funds, which the cinema cites on its own website, bears the date of December 20, 2019. In the following years the cinema hosted festivals, series and special screenings, including Free Aquila, the festival that Roma Culture cites in the presentation of the current season.

The current season is registered on the Roma Culture portal from November 16, 2025 to November 17, 2026, with films, series, festivals and meetings with filmmakers. From April 14 to 16, 2026 the cinema hosted 28 works by students of the Rome University of Fine Arts free of charge. At the end of September 2026 the daily programming continues, with titles also in the original language.

Who has passed through the Cinema Aquila

At the ceremony of June 19, 2008, according to Abitare a Roma, were Giammarco Palmieri, president of what was then Municipio Roma 6, Antonio Maruccia, the Government's special commissioner for the management of confiscated properties, Giulia Rodano, regional councilor for Culture, and Fabrizio Ghera, city councilor for Public Works and the suburbs. Alongside them was Gianluca Santilli, the Municipio's delegate for Culture.

The same chronicle recalls Mario Monge, then president of the consortium that ran the cinema, and the architect Pietro Scaglione, director of works. The architectural design, according to the website on suburban regeneration, was by Riccardo Magagnini, with Alessandro Bozzetti for site safety. They are names little known to the public, but without them the cinema would have remained a closed building.

In 2008 the largest room was named after Anna Magnani, according to the chronicle of the inauguration. It's a choice that ties the Pigneto cinema to the working-class Rome of great Italian cinema. In 2013 the running of the cinema was entrusted to Fabio Meloni. In 2016 the battle for the reopening had among its promoters the filmmaker Francesco Bernabei and the neighborhood committee Pigneto Vivo.

At the 2018 reopening the artistic direction was entrusted to the filmmaker Mimmo Calopresti, according to the Dire news agency, and the deputy mayor Luca Bergamo presented the cinema as a meeting place as well as a place for screenings. In April 2026, for the film students' series, the filmmakers Matteo Rovere, Daniele Ciprì and Riccardo Grandi passed through the cinema, according to Radio Roma.

The April 2026 series gives an idea of who frequents the cinema today. According to Radio Roma, students of the Rome University of Fine Arts presented 28 works divided into three categories, fiction shorts, animation and experimentation, documentaries, with four prizes in the form of festival distribution contracts. Alongside the screenings there were meetings with filmmakers, producers and distributors, open to the public free of charge.

Then there is the audience, which is the real protagonist. Residents of Pigneto and Torpignattara, students of the film schools, viewers of the original-language series, the curious who came for a festival. The cinema went from adult-film house to confiscated property, from construction site to cultural center, and today its value is measured in how many people come in every evening, more than in famous names.

What is shown and how do you choose a film?

The regular programming is that of an art-house cinema with openings to a wider audience: Italian and European auteur films, documentaries, a few titles of broader distribution. The cinema's website divides the offering among the week's films, those coming soon and an archive. The showtimes are concentrated in the afternoon and evening: the programming of September 29, 2026 reported by industry portals included one to three shows per title, between 16 and 21.

The subtitled original version is a strong point of the cinema. The Roma Capitale tourism portal lists it among the services, and the programming of September 29, 2026 included two titles out of three in subtitled original version. For anyone traveling who doesn't follow Italian well, it's the main reason to choose this cinema over a multiplex in the center, where almost everything is dubbed.

Then there are the festivals and series. The Roma Culture page on the 2025-2026 season cites series, festivals, special screenings and meetings with filmmakers between May and October 2026. Among the events mentioned is the Free Aquila festival. On these evenings the cinema becomes a meeting point for those who make films, not just for those who watch them.

Finding your way around the website takes just a few minutes. The menu divides the films into three lists, those of this week, those coming soon and all titles, and separates events from the regular programming. In the archive section you find press releases, press review, video and audio, useful for understanding the cinema's recent history. The page with ticketing information reminds you that purchase is only at the desk.

The advice is to follow the cinema's social profiles, listed on the Roma Culture page, as well as the website. Special events may be announced with little notice, and free seats go quickly. Anyone in Rome for only a few days can check the programming on the day of arrival and pick an evening that coincides with a meeting or a preview.

How many screens are there and what is the building like?

The sources don't agree on the exact number of seats. The Roma Capitale tourism portal lists three rooms: the first with 173 seats, the second and third with 73. The 2018 concession notice speaks of three rooms with 321 seats in total. The original design called for a 200-seat room on the ground floor and two of 100 on the second floor. A listing portal, finally, gives four screens.

The difference between design and reality is normal: safety rules and furnishing choices often reduce the seats planned on paper. The basic structure remains, with one large room and two more intimate ones. For anyone choosing a film, the consequence is practical: in the small rooms there are few seats, and a highly anticipated title can fill up before the show starts.

The building, according to the 2018 notice, covers about 928 square meters between the basement and the third floor. Besides the rooms it houses the projection booths, a cafe bar and the offices. The tourism portal lists air conditioning and accessibility for people with disabilities, and refers to the Roma accessibile section for details. Anyone with specific needs does well to call the operator first.

The original design also envisioned spaces for neighborhood courses and meetings, besides screenings. In 2013 the cinema was rented for conferences and press events. Today the website doesn't publish an offer for renting the rooms: anyone who wants to organize a private screening or a meeting must write to the operator, who evaluates requests case by case and gives conditions and rates.

Where does it fit among Rome's independent cinemas?

Rome has a network of independent cinemas worth knowing, and Nuovo Cinema Aquila is part of it. In Trastevere is the Cinema Troisi, reopened by young people from the neighborhood. Not far away is the Nuovo Cinema Sacher. In the center, the Cinema Farnese looks onto Campo de' Fiori, and in Prati is the Azzurro Scipioni.

The real difference is ownership. Many independent cinemas are private and live off tickets and rents. Nuovo Cinema Aquila is a public property given in concession, and this ties it to obligations of opening and social use that the others don't have. For the viewer it doesn't change much, but for the neighborhood it does: the cinema can't be sold or turned into a supermarket.

For anyone with only one evening available, the choice depends on what you're looking for. The cinemas in the center are easy to reach on foot after a day of sightseeing. Nuovo Cinema Aquila asks for a metro ride, but in exchange offers a real neighborhood around it, far from the tourist routes, and the story of a confiscated property returned to the neighborhood. In our opinion it's the right choice for anyone who wants to see how the city lives outside the center.

For anyone traveling by following cinema, Rome has other public places to pair with it. The Casa del Cinema at Villa Borghese is a Roma Capitale facility and offers series that are often free. Cinecittà Studios opens its sound stages with visitor routes. For the streets of the films there is the page on Rome in the movies.

On the theater side too there are experiences to compare. The Teatro Valle, with its long history of closures and relaunches, and the Teatro India, carved out of an industrial area along the Tiber, show other ways of giving the city a public venue. The Teatro Palladium in Garbatella is tied to the university. Among the venues in the center, the Teatro Vittoria in Testaccio and the Teatro Nazionale complete the picture.

When is it closed and what not to expect?

The cinema doesn't publish a closing calendar. The 2018 notice called for at least 345 days of opening a year, and the season registered on Roma Culture covers the whole span between November 2025 and November 2026. There may be technical pauses or days without shows, and the operator announces them on the website. Before heading out it's best to check the programming on the website or call the cinema.

Don't expect guided tours of the building. The cinema doesn't organize routes on the property's history, and the staff work for the screenings. Don't expect a museum or panels on the confiscation either: anyone who wants to dig into the history of the reuse of confiscated properties must do it beforehand, with the City's public documents and the press reconstructions cited in the text.

Don't expect online sales. Tickets are bought only at the box office, and on the busiest evenings there may be a line. For free events, first come, first served applies, with no reservation, until seats run out. Anyone arriving at the last minute for a highly anticipated film risks finding the room full, especially in the two small rooms.

On festival days the cinema can change its face. Series and competitions take over one or more rooms for whole days, and the regular programming shrinks or moves. Anyone with a specific film in mind must check that it doesn't coincide with an event. Conversely, anyone who wants to see the cinema at its liveliest does well to look for exactly those dates, with filmmakers in the room and debates after the screenings.

A last warning concerns the neighborhood. Pigneto is a lively area, with places open late, murals, noise and lots of people in the street on weekends. It is also a lived-in neighborhood, and in the evening those who live there ask for respect for their sleep and their streets. Anyone arriving expecting a postcard neighborhood is surprised. Anyone who takes it for what it is finds one of the liveliest areas of the city.

Eating in the area

Pigneto is full of places to eat and drink, especially along Via del Pigneto and in the streets around. Prices are often lower than in the historic center, and the clientele is largely Roman. It's a real advantage, but in the evening, when the neighborhood fills up, alongside the places frequented by residents there also appear places that live only on passing trade and crowded nights.

The signs of the traps are the same as across the city: photo menus in four languages, barkers on the sidewalk, items without prices, kitchens open nonstop with no break, the window with the lady rolling fresh pasta in front of passersby, a different menu inside and outside. None of these is illegal, but together they say that the place counts on you not coming back.

Pigneto also has a tradition of neighborhood bars and trattorias, frequented by day by people who work in the area and in the evening by a younger crowd. The rule is simple: be wary of places that bet everything on passing trade and the aperitivo hour, and prefer those where the kitchen has set hours and a short menu. Moving a few streets away from the pedestrian zone is usually enough to find prices and dishes of a lived-in neighborhood.

A practical tip concerns timing. Anyone going to the 21:00 show eats before, around 19:30, when the places are still quiet. Anyone going to the 18:30 show eats after, without hurry. For water there are the nasoni, the public drinking fountains. To choose without surprises, a starting point is the list of addresses on Google Maps, with places selected across Rome and Lazio.

What to combine in a day

The most natural pairing is with Porta Maggiore and the ancient remains of the eastern quadrant. You start from the big aqueduct arch of Porta Maggiore, look for the underground basilica of Porta Maggiore, visitable only on the dates given by the operator, and continue along the Aurelian Walls toward Holy Cross in Jerusalem and the Amphitheatrum Castrense.

Anyone who prefers San Lorenzo finds a short distance away the Verano Cemetery and the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, with the Porta Tiburtina at the entrance to the neighborhood and the Sapienza university campus a little beyond. It's a half day on foot, to close in the evening with a film in Pigneto.

A day entirely devoted to the eastern quadrant can begin in the morning with the walls and the aqueducts, continue in the afternoon among the streets of Pigneto and its murals and end at the cinema, with the 18:30 or the 21:00 show. It's a way of seeing Rome different from that of the great monuments, with a slower pace and fewer lines, and with an evening that doesn't end in the hotel.

For the aqueducts in the countryside, free of the city, the Aqueducts Park is reached by metro A. Closer, along Via Casilina, is the Mausoleum of Sant'Elena with the catacombs of Saints Marcellinus and Peter. The theme of places tied to the city's civic history continues with the page on the places of memory in Rome.

Anyone who wants to stay inside the walls finds the Esquilino behind Porta Maggiore, with Santa Bibiana, Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II and the Porta Alchemica, the Nuovo Mercato Esquilino for shopping and, farther on, the page on what to see in the Esquilino. From there the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano is reachable on foot.

For those who like neighborhoods told through their walls, Garbatella and Tor Marancia offer a useful comparison with Pigneto, among public housing, murals and neighborhood stories. For zero-cost ideas there is the page on Free Rome, where the free evenings of public cinemas also have a place. In the evening, then, you return to Pigneto for the film.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Cinema Aquila open?

Yes. Nuovo Cinema Aquila, at Via L'Aquila 66/74 in Pigneto, shows films every day in the 2025-2026 season, registered on Roma Culture from November 16, 2025 to November 17, 2026. Titles and showtimes are on the cinema's official website, updated week by week. For confirmation on specific dates, special events or closures, call 06 45541398 or write to info@cinemaaquila.it.

How much is a ticket?

The official price list is not published in the open pages of the website. According to a Roman online daily of September 29, 2026 full price costs €7.50 and reduced €6. At the 2018 reopening the rates were lower, between €4 and €7 depending on the day and the event. The exact price is read at the box office, the only place where tickets are bought.

Can you buy tickets online?

No. The cinema's official website says tickets are bought exclusively at the cinema's box office, on Via L'Aquila. No online sales circuits indicated by the operator appear, and no tourist platform sells entries to the cinema. For the busiest evenings it's best to arrive fairly early, because the two small rooms fill quickly and there are no reservations.

Why is it called a confiscated property?

Because the building was seized in 1998 and definitively confiscated on October 8, 2002, according to the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico, and passed to the assets of the City of Rome under law 109 of 1996 on the social reuse of properties confiscated from organized crime. Since then it has belonged to Roma Capitale, which gives it in free concession through public notices.

Are there films in the original language?

Yes. The Roma Capitale tourism portal says some films are offered in the original version, and the programming of September 29, 2026 included two titles in the original language with Italian subtitles. On the cinema's website the original version is flagged next to the showtime. For anyone who doesn't follow Italian well it's one of the most concrete reasons to choose this cinema.

How many rooms does it have and how many seats?

The sources don't agree on the detail. The Roma Capitale tourism portal gives three rooms with 173, 73 and 73 seats. The 2018 concession notice speaks of three rooms with 321 seats in total, the original design of one room of 200 and two of 100. A listing portal gives four screens. The basic structure remains one large room and two smaller ones.

Is the cinema accessible to people with disabilities?

The Roma Capitale tourism portal lists it as accessible and refers to the Roma accessibile section for details. A 2013 listing mentioned elevators, reserved seats in all the rooms and equipped restrooms. The operator does not publish an updated list of services today, and for specific needs it's best to phone 06 45541398 before going.

Who runs the Cinema Aquila?

The property belongs to Roma Capitale, which gives it in free concession through public notices. In 2018 an executive determination of April 26 assigned it for six years to the cooperative Cinema Mundi, which reopened it at the end of May. The name of the current operator is not confirmed by an official source, because the website signs only Nuovo Cinema Aquila: to find out, write to info@cinemaaquila.it or call 060608.

How do you get there by public transport?

The simplest solution is metro C to the Pigneto stop, opened in 2015 on Via del Pigneto, and then a few minutes on foot to Via L'Aquila. Coming from metro A you change at San Giovanni. From the Termini area there are trams that pass through Porta Maggiore, but lines and stops change often because of works, and it's best to check them on the ATAC website.

Who wrote this and from what sources

The text comes from the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, the Roman company that designs itineraries, visits and cultural events across Rome and Lazio. The rates, hours and booking methods reported here result from the official sources cited in the text as of the date given at the opening: the Nuovo Cinema Aquila website, the Roma Capitale tourism portal, Roma Culture and the 2018 concession notice, with the press for prices and news reports. Tell us what you find changed.

Organizing an evening at Nuovo Cinema Aquila, for yourself or for a group, mostly means choosing the film on the website, checking if it's in the original language, arriving early at the box office and deciding if you will pair Porta Maggiore, San Lorenzo or the Esquilino in the same day. For anyone organizing group trips to Rome with itineraries on neighborhoods and their civic history, a useful resource is Tour Leader Pro.

The eastern quadrant of Rome, between Pigneto, Torpignattara and Centocelle, is a part of the city that travelers discover late, often after they've already seen the historic center. Here you meet ancient aqueducts, public housing, murals and public cinemas like this one. To put together a multi-day trip across Rome and Lazio, a useful resource for building an itinerary is Italy Planner.