A newly-discovered part of an ancient Roman site where free grain was distributed to Romans until the third century AD has been unveiled in the basement of a luxury hotel in the centre of Rome. The excavatation and restoration of part of the Porticus Minucia Frumentaria was carried out by Rome's archaeological superintendency.

Archaeologists made the discovery in 2020 during renovation works to convert Palazzo Lares Permarini into a five-star hotel. The building is just across the street from the Crypta Balbi underground museum - temporarily closed - that traces more than 2,000 years of Roman history. Built in the 1st century AD, the Porticus Minucia Frumentaria was a vast colonnaded quadriporticus designed to distribute free grain to working-class Romans or plebians.