Teatro Ambra Jovinelli, Art Nouveau theatre in Esquilino district, Rome, Italy

Teatro Ambra Jovinelli has a salmon-pink facade with cream trim, three arched doorways at street level and three arched windows above, each arch bearing the theatre's name. A curved central gable carries a relief portrait head and a plaque reading "TEATRO JOVINELLI". The building was erected in the Esquilino quarter from 1906, with Ulderico Bencivenga taking over as designer the following year.

Giuseppe Jovinelli, a theatre impresario from Caserta, commissioned the theatre to give variety shows a setting as rich as a prose theatre. After designs by Pietro Chiodelli and Giacomo Radiconcini, building began in 1906 in the Esquilino quarter; Ulderico Bencivenga took over as designer the following year. It opened on 3 March 1909 with Raffaele Viviani and his sister Luisella. A fire destroyed the structure on 29 April 1982; after restoration it reopened on 25 January 2001.

The name Ambra was added in the 1950s, when the house became a cinema-variety venue: the initial A placed it near the top of newspaper cinema listings. Its stage launched Totò, who debuted here between 1919 and 1920 as an imitator of Gustavo De Marco and stayed until 1921. Ettore Petrolini got his first major engagement from Giuseppe Jovinelli in 1910.

The theatre stands on Via Guglielmo Pepe in the Esquilino quarter, a short walk from Termini station and the Vittorio Emanuele metro stop. The entrance is through the three arched doorways on the ground floor; the box office is inside. Programming is mainly comic and contemporary theatre, so check the season's calendar before travelling.

In the 1940s and 1950s the theatre doubled as an early indoor sports arena, hosting many boxing matches with leading champions fighting on a ring set up inside. Sports papers of the time reported the large crowds it drew.