Venue

Located only five minutes on foot from the central railway station of Santa Maria Novella and 1 km from the Duomo, the exhibition area can also be easily reached by car, by bus or using the newly opened tramway. Furthemore, it is only 5 Km away from the international airport Amerigo Vespucci.

Visitors and their accompanying partners will appreciate the fact that the area is so close to the Florence historical centre, allowing them to combine their congress activities with a great experience in one of the most famous places in the world, renowned for its artistic beauties, shopping streets, handicrafts products and its high quality wine and food.

Palazzo dei Congressi, located in the 19th century Villa Vittoria, combines finely furnished ancient halls with modern and functional venues such as the auditorium, with a maximum capacity of 1,000 people and the anfiteatro (amphitheatre), with a maximum capacity of 500 people.

Florence (Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse]) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.

Florence is famous for its history. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time,Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.

The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 72nd most visited in 2009, with 1,685,000 visitors.It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world,and the city is noted for its history, culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Pitti Palace, amongst others, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics.

Florence is also an important city in Italian fashion, being ranked within the top fifty fashion capitals of the world; furthermore, it is also a major national economic centre, being a tourist and industrial hub.