Location
For those attending in person, the conference will be held at the historical Santa Apollonia. This building is located in the center of Florence, near many restaurants, hotels, museums, parks, and other areas of interest.
Address for Conference Meeting Space
Auditorium di Santa Apollonia
Via S. Gallo, 25
50129 Firenze FI, Italy
Accommodations
There are many hotels and lodging accommodations in Florence. On average, expect rates to be about 100€ ($110) per night for a single room and 160€ ($176) per night for a double room. The following lists represent a portion of 3 star and above hotels that are within a 20 minute walk of the meeting venue (with options for public transport as well). Also, see our accomodation comparison chart listing all the options.
Cellai Hotel: Offers double rooms, free breakfast, 3 minute walk from meeting space. Use the code FIRE for discounted rate.
Hotel Porta Faenza: Offers single and double rooms, free breakfast, 8 minute walk from meeting space. Use the code Fire Across Boundaries for discounted rate.
Hotel Alba Palace Firenze: Offers single, double use single, and double rooms; free breakfast, 15 minute walk from meeting space. Use the code Fire Across Boundaries for discounted rate.
TSH Florence: Design hybrid 4-star hotel, co-working and chill-out areas, rooftop bar and pool with stunning view, 10 minute walk from meeting space. Use the code TSHFIREECOLOGY for discounted rate on all room types.
Hotel Orto De’ Medici: Offers double rooms, free breakfast, 1 minute walk from meeting space.
Hotel Il Guelfo Bianco: Offers double rooms, free breakfast, 2 minute walk from meeting space.
Hotel de Lanzi: Offers single, double, and triple rooms; free breakfast; 8 minute walk from meeting space.
Grand Hotel Baglioni: Offers single and double rooms, free breakfast, 9 minute walk from meeting space.
TSH Florence: Design hybrid 4-star hotel, co-working and chill-out areas, rooftop bar and pool with stunning view, 10 minute walk from meeting space. Use the code TSHFIREECOLOGY for discounted rate on all room types.
Grand Hotel Cavour: Offers double rooms, free breakfast, 13 minute walk from meeting space.
Ambasciatori Hotel Florence: Offers double rooms, free breakfast, 13 minute walk from meeting space.
La Maison du Sage: Offers double rooms, free breakfast, 19 minute walk from meeting space.
Yellow Square Firenze, Hostel: Offers several room types, 20 minute walk from meeting space.
Popartment: Offers double rooms, free breakfast, 23 minute walk from meeting space.
Travel Information
- Florence Airport
- The tram is the easiest and cheapest way to get to the city center. TRAMWAY LINE T2 connects the airport and Santa Maria Novella (SMN) train station in 15 minutes for just 1.50€. As you leave the airport, head out of the front door and turn left. Follow signs that indicate the T2 tram way stop. At the stop, you will find several ticket machines where you can buy your ticket(s).
- The city center can also be reached by taxi. The fare is set at €22.00, plus baggage supplements and extra fees for night or holiday travel.
- Pisa Airport
- The new Pisa Mover shuttle connects Pisa Airport to the Pisa Centrale main train station throughout the day at 5-8 min intervals and take less than 8 minutes. From the Pisa Centrale station you can take the train to Florence’s SMN train station and be in Florence in about an hour.
- Another option from the Pisa Airport is take a bus shuttle directly to Florence’s SMN train station, which takes 70 minutes. Companies such as Terravision or Autostradale provide this service.
- The city’s main railway station, Firenze Santa Maria Novella (SMN), is situated in the city center. The simplest way to reach the conference venue is on foot and will take only 10 minutes.
- Walking Directions from SMN to Santa Apollonia building at the University of Florence via GoogleMaps or ArcGIS
- Walking and Public Transport: The historic center is small enough to be crossed on foot. If you prefer to take public transport, there are many buses of the local transport company Ataf, whose routes are also available on GoogleMaps. A single ticket costs 1.50€ and is valid for any travel within 90 minutes of validation. To know the estimated time of arrival at your stop, you can install the official app.
- Car: Florence restricts car use in the city center to minimize traffic and to provide easier access for pedestrians and cyclists. The Limited Traffic Zone (ZTL) is from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on weekdays and 7:30am to 4pm on Saturdays. When you enter the ZTL area, your car’s license plates will be photographed and you will receive a fine unless you have a permit. If you have a car and your hotel is in the ZTL area, you can reach your hotel with a permit to drop off your luggage and passengers, but then you have to exit the ZTL area and park outside of its perimeter. For a permit, tell your hotel your license plate number and car make ahead of time, so they can communicate it to the local city police. This will allow a temporary permit of 2 hours so that you can enter the ZTL during that precise date and time.
- Taxi: Getting around the city by taxi is not difficult, but you do have to know ahead of time that in Italy taxis cannot be flagged down as they pass you along the street! Taxis are instead “stationed” at special taxi parking stands in most of the major squares, at the stations and at the airports. They can be requested by websites and related mobile-app: Taxi4390, Taxi4242, AppTaxi. If you want to call the taxi service, as well as the hotel or the airport, remember that the international prefix for Italy is +39.
- Florence’s Cathedral is just 7 minutes away with its magnificent renaissance Dome designed by Filippo Brunelleschi and the Baptistery right across. The cathedral named “Santa Maria del Fiore” is a vast Gothic structure whose exterior is covered in a decorative mix of pink, white, and green marble. The entrance is free, but you have to buy the single “Grande Museo del Duomo” pass to visit the Baptistery and the museum, and to climb up the Dome and the bell tower.
- Palazzo Vecchio is the main symbol of civil power for the city of Florence and it’s located in Piazza della Signoria (just 12 minutes away). Palazzo Vecchio’s current appearance is due largely to the Medici’s decision to turn the palace into their residence. When Duke Cosimo I de’Medici and his wife Eleonora of Toledo decided to transfer the court to Palazzo Vecchio (from Palazzo Medici-Riccardi), it was transformed into a fascinating labyrinth of institutional chambers, apartments, terraces, and courtyards. All the rooms (the so-called Quartieri Monumentali) are magnificently decorated by artists such as Michelangelo, Giorgio Vasari, and Donatello.
- The Uffizi Gallery it’s famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings (from the Middle Ages to the Modern period). The collections of paintings from the 14th-century and Renaissance period include some absolute masterpieces: Botticelli’s Primavera and Birth of Venus; Filippo Lippi’s Madonna and Child with Two Angels; Titian’s Venus of Urbino; and lots of other works, including works by the early Masters Cimabue and Giotto, and the Early Renaissance pioneers Fra Angelico and Masaccio, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Reservations are recommended to avoid long lines.
- The city is a real open-air museum and it will be pleasant to even take a walk to Ponte Vecchio to admire the Arno river, or go up to Piazzale Michelangelo to admire the enchanted panorama of the city from above.
- To search hotels, restaurants, places of interest or other tourist information in Florence, you can install Apps such as Firenze Turismo and Firenze–Guida or surf the websites such as Firenze Turismo and Visit Florence.