The detail conference venue information will be available about two weeks before the opening of the conference.
Milan Tourist Attractions
Located in Lombardy in Northern Italy, Milan is the country's financial and fashion capital. It's a sophisticated metropolis, a city with a forward-looking attitude that never forgets its past glories. Home to designers like Prada, Armani and Versace, Milan's impressive shopping centers attract nearly as many visitors as the city’s centuries-old cultural institutions. With attractions in Milan like the Duomo Cathedral, La Scala and Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper it's no wonder that Milan is Italy's third most visited city after Rome and Venice. When planning a trip to Milan, tourists should consider the fact that many businesses and shops close during the month of August. As this tends to be the country's hottest time of the year, many locals and proprietors go on holiday during this time. With Milan's wickedly arresting architectural projects, quirky sights around town, and splashy fashion scene, you'd think it’s all about appearance here. In a way, it is, although the city doesn't stop to preen; there's too much to do and see here to take a breather.
You can ride the entire length of the Grand Canal on the vaporetto, Venice's floating public transport system, from San Marco to Porta Roma. Be sure to take Line 1, not the express Line 2, which moves too quickly past the palaces and skips several stops. You can also do it on a motor boat tour, with a guide who can not only point out the palaces you'll pass, but pass slowly and pull closer for better views. The longer tour includes, along with an informative tour of the Grand Canal, the charming nei***orhood of Dorsoduro and a stop to visit the sights of Venice's former Jewish Ghetto in Cannaregio.
As your vaporetto leaves the San Marco stop, it heads across the mouth of the Grand Canal, aiming almost directly at the monumental Baroque church of Santa Maria della Salute, built as thanks for the end of the plague of 1630. In order to support its immense weight, architect Baldassare Longhena had to have more than a million timbers driven into the floor of the lagoon. The church is an impressive landmark, visible across the Grand Canal from San Marco, and this grandeur continues as you step inside with your attention immediately drawn to its massive dome. Be sure to see the Sacristy, where the best paintings are, especially Tintoretto's Marriage at Cana.
Just past Santa Maria della Salute is the low white Ca' Venier dei Leoni, a contemporary building on earlier foundations. The 1749 Vernier palace was never completed, and in 1949, its single floor became the site of American art collector Peggy Guggenheim's Venice museum of cubist, abstract, and surrealist paintings and sculpture. The collection includes works by Max Ernst, to whom Peggy Guggenheim was married, as well as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Joan Miro, Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Rene Magritte, Piet Mondrian, Marc Chagall, and Jackson Pollock.
On the opposite bank, the three-storied Palazzo Grassi's facade shows both Baroque and Classical features. The last palace built on the Grand Canal before the Venetian Republic's collapse in 1797, it was constructed from plans by Giorgio Massari that used a ground plan unusual in Venice, with four wings around a rectangular courtyard. When the Fiat Motor Company acquired the palace, extensive restorations and renovations included covering the courtyard, which, along with the rest of the palace, is used for exhibitions. The building is interesting for its harmonious blend of the original Neoclassical and modern architectural styles.
