-------------------------------- Dear all, this is the final message I am sending out on the ASAC logistics (I am afraid is a bit long), but of course, if you have questions, please let me know. PLEASE: have a look at the list of people for the Corridoio Tour at the end f this email, who is in is in, who is out is out, the Sovrintendenza ai Beni Culturali wants the exact number of people in advance (I hope I can push the deadline to Friday, but I am not sure). Meeting location: Convitto della Calza, Piazza della Calza 6, Sala Bargello (there will be signs) all lunches and breaks are organized there. Weather: Unfortunately the weather forecast calls for a possibility of rain during the weekend. I am told (...) that in Florence temperatures are still in the high twenties (C, high seventies in F, I believe), but it may drop quite a bit at night if we are going to have bad weather. Attached is a map and a satellite view where I marked the location of the most relevant places. The sketch that Al attached to the agenda is also a good guidance. It just came to my mind that, perhaps, those of you arriving early on Friday 14 may be interested in a quick tour of Galileo Galilei house near Arcetri, if this is the case, please let me know. I can try to organize a short visit (i.e. I can try to find the keys in our director's office...). The difficulty is that you will have to come to the Observatory somehow (uphill walk or taxi). We could do this on Friday afternoon sometime. The house has been recently restored, nothing of the original furnishing survived to the present time, and it is currently empty. It is "just" a fascinating (and beautiful) place were Galileo spent the last years of his life in "captivity". The plan is to convert it in a sort of meeting center, but we are not yet quite there, unfortunately. On Friday I will be reachable at my mobile (+393334970252) or in my office (+390552752234). I will not be able to join you for dinner on Friday evening. To find restaurants, bars, you can walk through via Romana towards the city centre (opposite direction wrt the Convitto della Calza). When you reach the small square with the column you have three choices: a) The Quick & Easy Solution: turn left toward Piazza Santo Spirito, you will find several restaurants and bars there. Even if this is the short an easy, do not underestimate this route: piazza Santo Spirito is one of the most beautiful squares in Florence, the church of Santo Spirito is one of the masterpieces of renaissance architecture. b) The Tourist Crowd Route: go ahead right through Piazza Pitti and via Guicciardini which leads to Ponte Vecchio. You will find (too) many touristic restaurants and bars, but a walk across Ponte Vecchio at night is nice. If you turn left at the beginning of via Guicciardini in via dello Sprone you end up in Piazza della Passera, there is a restaurant there which used to be not excessively touristic. c) The Sophisticated Pundit Path: go ahead left in via Maggio (known as via degli antiquari, for the large number of antiquity shops). At the end of via Maggio you can turn left and then left again to revert to path a) or turn right and revert to path b) through Borgo S. Jacopo. path c) continue straight across the bridge (gorgeous view of Ponte Vecchio to the right), one of the most trendy spot of the last years is the pub/bar just left after you cross the bridge. This is about all that comes to my mind, again, if you have questions let me know (today! I will be traveling tomorrow afternoon). See you in Florence! Leonardo -- Leonardo Testi - lt@arcetri.astro.it - Tel: +39-055-2752234 - http://www.arcetri.astro.it/~lt - Fax: +39-055-220039 Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy Corridoio Vasariano Tour Group (Meeting at 15:45 sharp in Piazza Pitti, tour starts at 16:00 expect to end inside the Uffizi at ~17:00, we will then be free to visit the Uffizi, including the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit. The Uffizi close at 18:30-19:00). Uffizi: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/ english/musei/uffizi/Default.asp Corridoio: http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/english/ musei/vasariano/Default.asp? Leonardo Exhibit: http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/menteleonardo/ The final estimate for the cost (given the number of people) is ~38.5 Euro/person Richer Testi (2) Blain WilsonC Bally Turner (2) Yamada Tarenghi Wootten WilsonT Laing Emerson Hibbard Lucas Puxley Mangum Raffi (2) Lorente Schwarz ------------------------------- I have reserved a room for the ASAC meeting at the Convitto della Calza (www.calza.it) a few rooms are available at the meeting center for the nights of Sep 15 and Sep 16 (a larger number for Sep 16 only). All the hotels are at walking distance from the center. You need to contact the Hotels directly and define the dates of your stay, I have pre-booked the rooms for the nights 15-16-17. Remember to mention that you are from the ALMA meeting group. Hotel Classic - has parking, very few rooms available tel +39055229351 fax. +39055229353 www.classichotel.it Hotel Annalena tel +39055222402 fax. +39055222403 www.hotelannalena.it Hotel Boboli tel. 0552298645 fax +390552337169 www.hotelboboli.com I am also looking for other possibilities and hope to send more options in a few days. The conference center may have a small number of rooms available for the nights 15-16 and some more for 16 only, so if you are planning to leave on sunday evening this is a good possibility. Please let me know if this may work for you. Traveling info. If you cannot find a convenient connection to Florence, I mentioned a few weeks ago that one possibility could be to fly to Pisa. Within Pisa airport there is a train station (Pisa Aeroporto) which allows a connection to Florence main station (Firenze S.M.N.). Sometimes the connection is direct, sometimes a change in Pisa Centrale is needed. Direct trains from Pisa Aeroporto to Firenze S.M.N. on Sept 15 are at: 10:42, 11:43, 12:43, 17:53, 18:43, 19:53. You can check the complete timetable at: http://www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html (be sure to enter the exact station names as above). Touristic info. Many state museums will close on MONDAY, e.g. the Galleria degli Uffizi. If enough people are interested, we can try to organize a visit to the Uffizi and the Corridoio Vasariano on Sunday afternoon. The Corridoio Vasariano is a long passage that was used to link the Medici Palace (Palazzo Pitti in oltrarno) with Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi (the government offices). It runs over the Old Bridge and offers a very unusual view of Florence. The Museum of history of science, which holds an interesting Astronomical collection with some Galileo's instruments, is closed on Sunday. If you need expensive shoes, purses or clothes, you will certainly find a place to spend your money, apparently it is impossible to buy anything else in the center of Florence, perhaps we are supposed to even start eating these for breakfast... Leonardo