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Our History
It was in 1882 when Giovanni Pagnanelli with his wife Giulia founded the restaurant. They prepared special meals with good wine, produced in the family's vineyard - "Il Vin Santo" a wine which won a gold medal in Paris in 1909. The restaurant was a favourite stopping point for princes and eccliastics who travelled by carriage to visit the Pope at Castel Gandolfo.
A painting by the artist Vaccari in (1915) depicts a convivial moment in the panoramic diningroom, when Giovanni Pagnanelli drinks to the health of his companioins, the local farmacist and the Administrator of Prince Torlonia.
In 1921 Giovanni Pagnanelli inaugurates his new hotel, designed in Liberty style, in Via Bruno Buozzi. This was an innovative venture in Castel Gandolfo and marked the first steps to be taken to encourage tourism in this town. In 1940 through to the fifties Lucia Pagnanelli runs the restaurant with the help of her sons, Mariano, Aurelio and Luciano.Lucia inherits from her father a small hotel above the restaurant which will house the canoeing athletes in 1960, participating in the Olimpics Games of Rome.
In the sixties Aurelio Mariani, son of Lucia Pagnanelli, falls in love with Jane, who having left Australia to visit Europe stops by lake Castel Gandolfo. Jane leaves her career as an actress in the theatre and marries Aurelio in 1965. Along with their four sons and endowed with great passion they will continue on in the family tradition passed down to them by their great grandfather Giovanni Pagnanelli.
Today Pagnanelli is an innovative restaurant, offering new proposals in their cuisine and in the interiors of the restaurant which have been sensitively restored to maintain their traditional character. Jane and Aurelio's ideas together with the contribution of their sons, plus excellent food, today make Pagnanelli something different, an inimitable style all of its own.
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