Franchetti Palace of Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti on the Grand Canal of  Venice

The venue of the conference is the enchanted Franchetti Palace on the Grand Canal of Venice, which belongs to the Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti. The Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti stems from the Reale Istituto Nazionale, created by Napoleon for the Kingdom of Italy in 1810. The Institute regularly promotes meetings, conferences and seminars on Sciences, Humanities and Art. Particular attention is devoted to diffusion of culture by audiovisual media, information technology and internet communications.

Palace Franchetti hosts a convention center, equipped with the latest technological systems, with conference rooms, meeting rooms, exhibition halls and a large garden. The great fifteenth-century palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal was purchased by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti as a venue for cultural activities such as conferences and art exhibitions.

The building is located just off the Academy bridge and develop towards Campo Santo Stefano. The building is located in the center of the vast area where many of the leading Venetian cultural, such as the La Fenice Theather, Grassi Palace and Punta della Dogana, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Academy Gallery, Fortuny Palace, Ca 'Rezzonico and the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello. They are within walking distance (15-20 minutes) from Piazza San Marco, Rialto, the railway and the Piazzale Roma.

The SOC and the LOC of the conference would like to thank the Venezia Iniziative Culturali srl, who maintains the Franchetti Palace and organizes its cultural activities, for the support in the conference organization.

Getting to Venice

Arriving by train

The first thing you need to know is that there are two Venices—and two Venice train stations. The first station you come to arriving by train is "Venezia-Mestre." Do not get off here! Mestre is merely the landlubbing, industrial suburb of Venice. Stay on the train as it crosses the causeway to the island-city and the station of "Venezia—Stazione Santa Lucia."

If your ticket is to "Venezia-Mestre," never fear; every few minutes shuttle trains leave for the 10-minute, 5-mile ride halfway across the lagoon into Venice proper.

Exit the train station and directly in front of you is the famous Grand Canal, Venice's watery Main Street. Look to your left and you'll see a pair of floating docks for the vaporetto (public ferries, Venice's public "bus" system).

The dock off to your right (S. Lucia) handles Lines 1 (local down the Grand Canal), 4.1 and 4.2, and 5.1 and 5.2.

The dock off to the left (Scalzi, just before the big bridge) handles line 2 (express down the Grand Canal) and the N (the night ferry).

Go to the dock of your choice, buy a ticket from the booth ( it really costs €7), and hop on the no. 1 (local) or no. 2 (express) line headed left, which is downstream, as it were, chugging down the Grand Canal toward the Accademia bridge.

Arriving by car

At the risk of stating the obvious, there are no cars allowed in Venice at all (hard to drive on all that water) You'll have to park your car for the duration of your stay, and you have three options.

• Park in the S. Giuliano lots in the mainland suburb of Mestre for €5 a day and take a bus over to Venice.

• Drive across the causeway over the bay into Venice and the only bit accessible by car, Piazzale Roma, and immediately pull into the first garage on your right, the official ASM Venezia car park, cheapest of the bunch at around ~ €25-30 per day.

• You can find place also at the Tronchetto (just turn right by following the sign before getting into Piazzale Roma)

At Piazzale Roma or Trochetto you will see floating docks for the vaporetto as well.

Arriving by flight

Most flights to Venice land at Venice's Marco Polo Airport, in the landlubbing suburb of Mestre.

To get downtown: Public buses and land taxis will get you as far as Piazzale Roma, where you have to switch to a vaporetto (water bus) to get deeper into Venice (total cost: from €8.30). Far better: Take the €15 public Alilaguna traghetto ferry straight to San Marco or Zattere, which is much closer to the Venue or the suggested hotels (and avoid private water taxis, which charge nearly €100).

Note that some low-cost airlines like Ryanair say they're flying you to "Venice" when they really land in the Treviso airport, about an hour's bus ride from Venice.