Which Municipio of Rome you live in, and how to find out

In Rome almost every procedure goes through your Municipio: the registry office, social services, benefits, school enrolment, and — since this year — the email address for replacing the paper identity card, which is different for each of the fifteen Municipi.

The problem is that your Municipio is written nowhere: it is not on your identity card, it is not the postcode and it is not the name of the neighbourhood. It is an administrative division that depends on the address where you are resident, street by street.

The tool that answers: the city's street register

Roma Capitale keeps the official list of every street in the city. It is called the viario and it lives inside the city's toponymy system, SIS.To., on the geoportal:

geoportale.comune.roma.it/sisto/viario

For each named street the viario gives:

• the Municipio it belongs to — that is what you need;
• the limits of the street, that is, where it starts and ends;
• the toponymic district it falls into;
• the council decision that assigned the name, and any later changes;
• even the pre-2013 Municipio, from when Rome had nineteen of them and they became fifteen.

How to search, step by step

Three clicks. The only one you cannot guess is the last.

• 1. Type the street name in the Toponimo field. Use the name only — "babuino", "casilina", "tuscolana" — without "via", "viale" or "piazza": if you type the whole thing and nothing comes up, that is almost always why. The other two fields, Municipi and Suddivisioni, narrow the search and can be left alone.
• 2. Press "Ricerca". Below appears the list of streets with that name, with the type (D.U.G.: via, vicolo, piazza), the name and the date it was established. Careful: the same name with a different type is a different street — "via del Babuino" and "vicolo del Babuino" are not the same place.
• 3. On the right row, open "Tratte" (stretches), the third of the icons on the right. This is the step nobody guesses: the Municipio is not in the list, it is inside there.

Reading the page: the Municipio is in the "tratte"

The page opens with the street's details — name, short name, the caption explaining where the name comes from, and the limits, that is where it runs from and to (for via del Babuino: "from piazza del Popolo to piazza di Spagna").

Below there are two tables: Tratte lato destra and Tratte lato sinistra — the right-hand and left-hand sides of the street. Each row is one stretch between two junctions, with the house numbers from… to…, the Suddivisione (the rione or district), and the two columns you care about:

• Municipio — today's one, and the answer you came for;
• Ex Mun. — the pre-2013 Municipio, useful only if you have an old document showing a different number.

This is why the house number matters more than the street: find the row that contains your number, on the correct side of the street. On a short street every row will say the same Municipio; on a long consular road it will not, and that difference is yours.

Three mistakes that waste time

• The postcode is not the Municipio. They are two different divisions, made by two different bodies. Two homes with the same postcode can sit in different Municipi.
• The neighbourhood name is not the Municipio. "I live in Torpignattara" does not answer the question: the street and the number do.
• What counts is your registered residence, not where you sleep. If you have moved and have not filed the declaration of residence yet, as far as the city is concerned you still live at the old address — and your paperwork goes there. That is why the residence declaration should be done straight away.

If the site does not help

The geoportal is built for public offices and is not always easy. Two simpler routes, both official:

• Call 060606, the Comune di Roma number: give the address and they will tell you the Municipio.
• Go to the URP desk of the Municipio you think is yours: if you are wrong, they will send you to the right one.

If an old document or an old case file shows a Municipio with a different number, it is not a mistake: until 2013 there were nineteen Municipi, then they were merged. The valid number is today's.

This guide explains how to reach an official piece of information from the city of Rome. If the procedure you have to complete has a deadline — the identity card, for instance — check the Municipio before you send the request: an email to the wrong office is not forwarded, and the slot is lost.