Late openings, live music and cultural events in Roman museums

The sixth edition of Musei in Musica takes place on the evening of Saturday 6 December from 20.00 to 02.00. A selection of museums and cultural venues in the capital will stay open late and host free music and dance events, with last entry at 01.00.

The special €1 entry ticket can be used to enter all museums participating in the initiative that evening, although the normal admission rate applies in the case of the Cartier-Bresson exhibition at the Ara Pacis.

Among the institutions involved are the Capitoline Museums, Centrale Montemartini, Villa Torlonia, MACRO La Pelanda, Museo Carlo Bilotti and the Zoology Museum. Musei in Musica is the start of a long weekend of cultural events and special openings in Rome's museums, organised under the banner Vivi i Musei.

On Sunday 7 December the capital's museums are open free of charge to residents of Rome, as part of an experimental plan to make the municipal museum network free to everybody (residents and non-residents) on the first Sunday of every month, starting from January.

Organisers are also promoting free live music, dance and readings at the city's seven municipal museums whose entry fees were abolished in August: Villa di Massenzio, Museo di Scultura Antica Giovanni Barracco, Museo delle Mura, Museo Carlo Bilotti, Museo Pietro Canonica, Museo Napoleonico and the Museo della Repubblica Romana e della Memoria Garibaldina.

The initiative kicks off a series of events at the seven museums during the Christmas period until 6 January. On Monday 8 December, a national holiday in honour of the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception, all of the city's museums will be open as normal (with the exception of Casa Museo Alberto Moravia) and the normal admission charge applies.

For full details of Vivi i Musei see the city's museum website.