ORGANIZING SECRETARIAT
Consorzio Quinn
Via Giordano Bruno, 71
56125 Pisa, Italy
Ph.: +39 345-7086194
Fax: +39 050 – 501457
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Contact person: Ms Silvia Maggini

CONGRESS VENUE
School of Engineering
University of Pisa, Polo Etruria
Via Diotisalvi, 2
56100 Pisa, Italy

ABOUT PISA

Arriving by Plane: The Pisa airport is at the south-west end of the town, surprisingly close (1.5 km or 15min walk) to the train station. In addition to cabs and a shared cab ("Taxi Collettivo", not door-to-door), you can take bus #1 (and possibly switch, at the train station, to buses serving your destination).

Arriving by Train: Most buses stop at the train station serving the various areas of the town, so public transportation is quite effective there. Cabs and the shared cab also stop there.

Arriving by Car: The preferred highway exit for Pisa is Pisa Centro, which brings you straight to the airport and from there you can cross the town for your destination. You can drive along the river, but otherwise most of the central streets are restricted traffic areas, with camera access control at the (very visible) gates. Be careful not to enter there if you don't want a fine. In case, check with your hotel for instructions.
Note that street parking (at least in the places marked by blue lines) is generally subject to a fee from 8:00 to 20:00.

Transportation
Here we deal mostly with local transportation. In Pisa, you'll have a choice between walking, local bus service and taxi to move in town, and bus, train and rental cars should you like visiting nearby places.

• Walking
  Why not ? The conference location is about 3, 6 km from the train station and 4,2 km from the airport. Most of the tourist areas are also within one km from conference site.
• Local Bus Service
  Local bus service is run by a company called CPT, and offers transportations to most hotel downtown or in the near proximity (see the bus map). Most buses run between 6.30 (am) and 21.00 with two night lines running every 20 minutes till 23.30. One-hour tickets cost € 1 (or less for blocks of 4-10; see the full tariffs).
• Taxi
  Local taxi transportation is managed by a company called CoTaPi. The cabs typically stand at the train station, airport and piazza Arcivescovado (near the tower), or you can call by phone +39-050-541600 and follow the instructions in Italian, and hope that a car comes by (most comments I hear say that the service is unreliable to nonexistent outside daytime, and completely inadequate to handle bursts of demand e.g. around 9-10 pm when large planes are landing).
• Hotel Shuttles
  Most hotels (maybe for the above reasons) are equipped with minivan and offer (normally for a fee) transportation from/to places downtown. Please consider that opportunity if you plan to arrive or leave at some inconvenient hour.
• Shared Cab ("Taxi Collettivo")
  In addition to regular taxis, there is also a shared minivan service between the airport, train station and Piazza Duomo. However (long list of however): there is only one car in service, accommodating only 8 people; tariffs depend on the location (from 3 Euros up); it is not a door-to-door service, and not all locations are covered - e.g. if you need to go to a hotel which is not on the normal route, they request at least 3 people for the same destination). In other words: think of it as a bus.
• Tourist Buses
  city-sighteesing pisa runs an open-top bus going around the central part of the town, which you might find of some interest.
• Non-Local Buses
  Connection to nearby towns and villages (Tirrenia, Marina di Pisa, Livorno, San Giuliano, Lucca) is supplied by two bus companies (CPT and Lazzi), and by Train. The buses to Tirrenia, Marina and Livorno start the last run around 23.00, while those to Lucca and San Giuliano typically start the last run around 21.00.
• Train
  Trains are mostly useful if you want to visit nearby cities such as Florence and Viareggio. Details on train schedules can be found on the Trenitalia Web Site.
  Direct trains to/from Florence are very frequent and convenient (once per hour, travel time is 1hr). Going to/from Siena takes at least two hours (often 3) and a connection in Empoli.
• Car (and Car Rental)
  Most car rental companies are based at the Pisa Airport. Italian cars normally have manual-shift.
  If you plan to drive through Pisa, keep in mind the following:
  • most of the central part of the town is a pedestrian area ("ZTL"), with camera surveillance equipped with OCR for license plate reading. The system does work well, and if you are not authorized to pass the gate, chances are very high that you'll be caught and fined;
  • street parking is generally permitted, but on the parking places marked by blue stripes (basically everywhere) you have to pay a hourly fee between 8:00 and 20:00. Coin-operated parking meters are available in those areas, and you can buy tickets for the expected duration of your stop. For longer parking, you might find it convenient to buy electronic pre-paid cards; you can buy them in “Tabacchi” shops.
  • speed limits vary depending on the road. In town it is usually 50 Km/h, outside it is either 70 or 90 depending on the number of lanes in each direction, and 130 on the toll highways. Here again, there is a large number of fixed speed cameras installed on nearby highways (both the non-toll Fi-Pi-Li, and the toll Pisa-Firenze), including some (once again OCR-equipped and networked, the beauty of information technology) that compute your average speed on 5..20km segments, so slowing down in proximity of the camera doesn't help much.
• Bike Rental
  There are a few companies renting bicycles and similar vehicles in Pisa. Among these, Pisa Scooter & Bike Rental, and http://www.toscanaintour.it//index.php?lang=en

Currency, Language, Units
The local currency is the Euro (the symbol is €). It comes in coins (1-2-5-10-20-50 cents, 1-2 Euros) and notes (5-10-20-50 and, less common, 100-200-500). Amounts are generally rounded to the next 5c. The currency is used across several EC countries so especially the coins may carry local symbols. The notes are the same in all countries. More info on the notes at the European Central Bank.
The local language is of course Italian, with no strong dialect spoken (unlike some places in northern and southern Italy). English is mostly understood and (slightly less often) also spoken. It helps to use the customary accessibility strategies - sentences not too convoluted, not cutting the ends off words, and a bit of visual effects (gesturing) in case you see a blank face on your interlocutor.
Our unit system is based on the "SI" system, with distance measured in meters, weight in kilos, volumes in liters, time in seconds, and temperature in Celsius degrees. As a rough conversion, 1 km = 0.62 miles, 1 kg = 2.2 pounds, 1 liter = 0.264 gallons. A pint is roughly 0.47 liters, but the equivalent of a pint of beer ("birra media") is normally just 0.4 liters. We also follow strictly the decimal system, so there is no such a unit as "one third of a meter" or "1/32th of a kilo".

Banks, Credit Cards and ATM
Banks are open from Monday to Friday, from 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and in the early afternoon, from 3.00 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday money can be changed in hotels, currency exchange booths at the Leaning Tower area and at the airport.Banks also have ATM machines ("bancomat"), which are open 24 hours/day, 7 days/week and take most credit cards.
Major credit cards are accepted by hotels, restaurants and most shops.

Tipping and Receipts
Being a major deviation from the custom in the US, we would like to point out that tipping is not required nor expected in Italy: the bill ("conto") always includes service, and the personnel are not expecting to make their living out of tips. So, in particular in bars, restaurants, taxis, etc., it is perfectly fine to pay exactly the amount on the bill, or possibly round it up by say 2-5% depending on the amount to make the numbers round.
Italian law requires businesses to release, spontaneously or at least on demand, a receipt ("scontrino fiscale" or a "ricevuta fiscale") with date, sequence numbers, and identification of the business. A note scribbled on a piece of paper is not valid, and possibly a hint of the place trying to exploit your lack of knowledge of the rules. Tipping taxi drivers is also optional.

Weather
In June, weather is usually continental.
The temperature rises during the day to an average of 25°C.  The appropriate dress for the Congress is business casual

AC Voltage and Plugs
AC power is 220 Volts, 50Hz. Plugs have three round pins in-line (the central is ground and may be missing sometimes). Schuko (German-style) plugs are also used but somewhat less popular. Most of the power sockets at the conference will be able to accommodate Italian and Schuko plugs. Adapters for UK and US power plugs are available in several electrical supply stores.

Health
Emergency medical service can be received by calling the number 118 from any phone, or by going to the "Pronto Soccorso", which is located in via Bonanno, next to the Piazza dei Miracoli. You will not be refused treatment for real emergencies, even if you don't have an insurance policy or credit card. Some treatments or tests are of course subject to payment, depending on your citizenship (Italian and EU citizens have public health insurance services) and the type of treatment (Italians have to pay for some things as well).
By law, drugs (both prescription and non-prescriptions) are generally sold in medicine shops ("Farmacie"), and basically never in supermarkets and other stores. “Farmacie” are normally open during business hours, except for a couple open 24 hours.

Telephones

• number formats and prefixes
  Italian phone numbers have variable length, both in the "prefisso" (prefix, used to be the area code) and in the local part of the number. The prefix must always be included, even for local calls.
  A leading "0" denotes area codes for wired phones (e.g. 050 is Pisa, 055 is Florence, 06 is Rome, 02 is Milan). The leading "0" is an integral part of the area code and must be dialed also when calling from abroad.
  A leading "1" is normally used for toll services or emergency numbers. A leading "3" indicates the prefix for cellular phones (eg 347, 340, 338...). They are not related to a specific area, neither, to some degree, to a specific provider. Toll free numbers have the "800" prefix (but they are normally free only from landlines), whereas other prefixes starting with "8" are toll services and may be expensive.
  Finally, international calls must be prefixed by "00" and the international prefix for the country you are calling (so it is 001 for the US, 0044 for the UK, and so on). The international phone prefix for Italy is +39.
  
• Emergency numbers
  113: Polizia (police, general emergency) - 118: Pronto soccorso (Emergency medical service) - 115: Vigili del fuoco (fire brigade)
  
• Calling from public phones
  Public phones are rapidly vanishing these days, except in airports and train stations. They might be coin-operated but more often will take a calling card (on sale in some bars and tobacco shops) or sometimes a credit card (squeezing out a fair bit of money from it, as in most places in the world).
  
• Calling centers
  Especially in the station area (via Corridoni), where the foreign population is more numerous, there are several call centers with cheap tariffs for international calls.

Internet Access

•  Internet points
  There is a number of internet points in the central part of the town (via dei Mille, via Carducci) and in the station area. Tariffs are from 2 € per hour and above, and normally, you are not allowed to connect your own equipment, but must rely on the machines supplied there.
• Hotel Access
  The situation varies here as well. Most hotels still have only dialup access (but you need to get the information and an account in advance) with some of the newer ones also offering wireless connectivity (for free or for a daily or hourly fee) in the lobby or possibly also (wired) in the rooms.

Shopping

Shops are generally open Monday to Saturday, 9.00-13.00 and 16.00-20.00. Some stores (usually clothing) are closed on Monday morning. Others (usually electricity, hardware etc.) are closed on Saturday afternoon. Supermarkets and department stores usually are open 8.00-20.00 (excluding Sunday).
The main shopping streets (clothing, jewelery, pottery) are around Borgo Stretto and Corso Italia, cutting the town North to South across ponte di Mezzo. A shopping mall with a large electronics store (MediaWorld) is just 1km north-east of the train station, in via Matteucci.