A review of the recent and on going works about the characterization of mid-latitude cirrus through two advanced multi-channel lidar systems, located in the Mediterranean area, is presented. These systems, at the Observatory of Haute Provence (OHP, 43.9° N, 5.7° E) in France and at Rome Tor Vergata (RTV, 41.8° N, 12.6° E) in Italy, observe cirrus in operational or semi-operational mode. A statistical approach has been used to derive cirrus classification (and climatology) over the period 1996-2007 for OHP lidar measurements. Similarly, a preliminary cirrus classification has been performed on RTV lidar data for three years period and compared to the French one. Finally a study to assess the feasibility of a future observing strategy that couples lidar measurements to a Match approach has been conducted to characterize cirrus optical properties using both the French and the Italian site. A case of upper tropospheric thin cirrus advection has been identified and studied through this approach.