How to get free access to Rome's museums with the MIC card
Rome residents and students of the city's universities can benefit from free entry to a range of museums and archeological sites for just five euros per year.
There are many perks to living in Rome; delicious and affordable restaurant food, a balmy climate and beautiful surroundings to name a few.
But there's one perk that you may not have heard of: being a Rome resident makes you eligible for the MIC Card, which gets you free entry to a range of city museums and other cultural sites for 12 months.
At just €5, it sounds almost too good to be true when you consider that some of the museums it grants you access to cost three times as much for a single-entry ticket - but city authorities have kept the scheme in place for several years now.
Here's how the card works.
Who can access the MIC card?
You need to be over the age of 18 and living or studying at a university in Rome to be eligible for the MIC card.
Your official residence doesn't necessarily have to be in Rome, however, for you to qualify; the card is also available to people who are domiciliato/a, or 'domiciled', in the city, but are registered as resident elsewhere in Italy.
READ ALSO: Six essential apps that make life in Rome easier for foreign residents
That might apply, for example, to someone who has moved to Rome for work or study reasons, but wants to keep their official residence as their parents' home.
In Italy, you autocertify that you are domiciled in a given city; you'll need to provide your current living address.
Where can you buy the card?
You can buy the card online, here, filling out an online form with your name, email, phone number, address, ID document number, and Italian tax code.
The site charges an extra euro for online purchases, so you'll pay €6 total. You'll then receive an email containing a pdf copy of the card, which is valid for 12 months from the date of purchase.
Rome's Capitoline Museums are one of the many sites you can access for free with a MIC card. Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP.
You can also buy the card in person at any of Rome's civic museums and some tourist Infopoints, presenting an identification document. You can request a hard plastic card, and/or the digital pdf version.
Remember to bring your ID with you every time you want to use the card, as you'll be asked to present it on entering the museum.
READ ALSO: What are the best Rome neighbourhoods for international residents?
What does the MIC card get you?
The card gets you free entry into Rome's 18 civic museums and 27 archeological sites, including the Capitoline Museums, Trajan's Market, the Museo dell’Ara Pacis, Largo Argentina (the site where Caesar was stabbed), and the Museum of Rome in Trastevere.
A full list of all the sites you can access with the card can be found here.
It's also basically a skip-the-line pass; the MIC card acts as a ticket, so if you see a long ticket queue, you can bypass it and go straight to the entrance.
The card also gets you a 10 percent discount in museum cafes and bookshops, and reduced tickets to the planetarium, the Circo Maximo experience, and the Imperial Rome virtual reality bus.
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There are many perks to living in Rome; delicious and affordable restaurant food, a balmy climate and beautiful surroundings to name a few.
But there's one perk that you may not have heard of: being a Rome resident makes you eligible for the MIC Card, which gets you free entry to a range of city museums and other cultural sites for 12 months.
At just €5, it sounds almost too good to be true when you consider that some of the museums it grants you access to cost three times as much for a single-entry ticket - but city authorities have kept the scheme in place for several years now.
Here's how the card works.
Who can access the MIC card?
You need to be over the age of 18 and living or studying at a university in Rome to be eligible for the MIC card.
Your official residence doesn't necessarily have to be in Rome, however, for you to qualify; the card is also available to people who are domiciliato/a, or 'domiciled', in the city, but are registered as resident elsewhere in Italy.
READ ALSO: Six essential apps that make life in Rome easier for foreign residents
That might apply, for example, to someone who has moved to Rome for work or study reasons, but wants to keep their official residence as their parents' home.
In Italy, you autocertify that you are domiciled in a given city; you'll need to provide your current living address.
Where can you buy the card?
You can buy the card online, here, filling out an online form with your name, email, phone number, address, ID document number, and Italian tax code.
The site charges an extra euro for online purchases, so you'll pay €6 total. You'll then receive an email containing a pdf copy of the card, which is valid for 12 months from the date of purchase.
You can also buy the card in person at any of Rome's civic museums and some tourist Infopoints, presenting an identification document. You can request a hard plastic card, and/or the digital pdf version.
Remember to bring your ID with you every time you want to use the card, as you'll be asked to present it on entering the museum.
READ ALSO: What are the best Rome neighbourhoods for international residents?
What does the MIC card get you?
The card gets you free entry into Rome's 18 civic museums and 27 archeological sites, including the Capitoline Museums, Trajan's Market, the Museo dell’Ara Pacis, Largo Argentina (the site where Caesar was stabbed), and the Museum of Rome in Trastevere.
A full list of all the sites you can access with the card can be found here.
It's also basically a skip-the-line pass; the MIC card acts as a ticket, so if you see a long ticket queue, you can bypass it and go straight to the entrance.
The card also gets you a 10 percent discount in museum cafes and bookshops, and reduced tickets to the planetarium, the Circo Maximo experience, and the Imperial Rome virtual reality bus.
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