Cristian Bucchi secured his first point since taking charge at Pescara and the result sees them halt a run of eight consecutive defeats. However, the Delfini still look bound for Serie B as they are eight points adrift of safety with just five games to play.
Roma welcomed Pablo Osvaldo back from suspension and Miralam Pjanic from injury, although Nicolas Burdisso and Federico Balzaretti sat out bans, while Marquinho succumbed to a knee injury.
The visitors had Mattia Perin, Antonio Bocchetti, Per Kroldrup, Luciano Zauri, Vladimir Weiss, Juan Quintero and Gaetano D'Agostino all out injured, while Giuseppe Sculli was suspended. Giuseppe Rizzo returned from his ban and Mervan Celik was given a chance to impress.
Pescara gave Roma a scare inside two minutes. Eugenio Romulo Togni's ball sprung the offside trap and Ferdinando Sforzini blazed over. After the frontman spurned another chance by heading wide a low Damiano Zanon cross, the visitors took a deserved lead on 14 minutes. Gianluca Caprari - co-owned by the Giallorossi and a product of the Roma youth academy opened the scoring against his parent club. Maarten Stekelenburg saved Emmanel Cascione's snapshot and Caprari was on hand to head in the rebound. The frontman opted not to celebrate as a mark of respect.
Francesco Totti chipped in Alessandro Florenzi to fire a weak effort straight at Ivan Pelizzoli. The Giallorossi captain then volleyed over straight from a corner.
Daniele De Rossi wasted a guilt-edged chance to equalise nine minutes before the break. He received Totti's pass, but opted to roll the ball across the box rather than shoot and Uros Cosic was in position to clear.
Marco Capuano escaped being penalised for a handball after his downwards header ricocheted off the turf and onto his arm. Roma wanted a penalty, but the referee deemed the contact unintentional.
Destro was introduced during the break and was denied a penalty after a collision with Zanon in the box. It took the substitute just six minutes to equalise. Pescara failed to clear a corner and De Rossi's wayward shot was turned in by Destro, who was simply in the right place at the right time.
Pelizzoli denied former teammate Totti from distance, before preventing Destro from adding to his tally with a smart reflex stop.
Federico Di Francesco - son of ex-Roma player Eusebio Di Francesco almost snatched a late winner for the visitors. He ran onto Francesco Modesto's disguised pass and saw Stekelenburg off his line, but his lob was still clawed out of the air by the lanky shotstopper's hand.
Totti laid a free kick off for substitute Nicolas Lopez to balloon over the game's final chance. Unimpressed, the Roma tifosi jeered the players off the field at the final whistle.
AS Roma: Stekelenburg; Piris, (Lopez 83) Marquinhos, Castan, Torosidis; Pjanic, (Bradley 72) De Rossi, Florenzi; (Destro 46) Lamela, Osvaldo, Totti
Pescara: Pelizzoli; Zanon, Cosic, (Bianchi Arce 92) Capuano, Modesto; Rizzo, Togni; Celik, (Di Francesco 64) Cascione, Caprari; (Balzano 54) Sforzini.
Goals: Caprari 14 (P) Destro 51 (R)