Monday, May 5 – Welcome Reception

Meet your colleagues and socialize with your friends during the get-together to be held in the courtyard of the Fortezza da Basso (Conference Venue).
The evening will include tasting of typical tuscany food, beverages, as well as some entertainment.

Michela Lombardi 4tet will be performing well known jazz standards and bossanova tunes. The members of both Michela Lombardi 4tet and Cupressus Jazz 4tet will eventually join each other’s bands as guests, jamming together!


Fortezza da Basso – History of the Venue

The Lord of the Town of Florence Alessandro de’ Medici ordered its construction in order to defend himself from possible uprisings by the Florentines, at that time recently subjected to Medici power. Built on the basis of a design by Antonio da Sangallo and finished in 1535, the fortress has massive, solid walls. Its forepart facing the city is formed by characteristic diamond-point bosses, alternated with crushed-ball bosses.

A significant example in the history of military architecture, the Fortezza is also one of the first places where Benjamin Franklin’s theories on the electrical nature of lightning were applied in practise. Grand Duke Peter Leopold indeed ordered that the gunpowder warehouses of the main cities of the Grand Duchy should be equipped with large iron bars.

Today, the Fortezza da Basso is the venue of important international shows like Pitti Immagine, the International Handicrafts Trade Fair and the Furniture Show.

The reception is included in the conference registration fee for members, non-members and students.
Additional tickets for accompanying parties are available at the cost of Euro 25.00 each.

Tuesday, May 6 – Concert

Concert of Classical and Modern music at the Teatro la Pergola.

Teatro la Pergola - History

Constructed between 1652 and 1656 by a group of Florentine nobles interested in the cultivation of the arts called the Accademia degli Immobili, The Pergola was the first theater in Italy to be built with boxes encircling the auditorium. Built as the theater for the court for the presentation of operas, it opened to the public in 1718. The theater hosted some of the largest and most important operas of the time, from Vivaldi to Meyerbeer, in addition to large balls and parties for which it became famous. Around and below the main areas of the theater there a number of other spaces that create the “City of the Theater”, where life and commerce begins and where the workers stop to sleep. In the first half of the 1800’s the Pergola was the temple of classical Italian melodrama, the theater of Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. At the end of the century a transformation began on the stage of prose, thanks to the presence of the actress Eleonora Duse. In 1942 the Immobili surrendered the Pergola to the Italian State and was managed by the Ente Teatrale Italiano until 2011. In the 60’s it became the lace for excellence in Italian prose, where Eduardo and Gassman triumphed. Their mission continues today: looking to the future with historic values which are at the heart of the Teatro Pergola.

Wednesday, May 7 – Conference banquet

Join us for the conference banquet in the beautiful medieval Town Hall of Florence “Palazzo Vecchio”. Separate registration and payment is required for the dinner, and a limited number of seats are available.
The dinner will be served in the “Salone dei 500”, the magnificent main hall of the building,and a guided visit of the adjacent museum will be organized before dinner for a limited number of participants on a first-come-first-served basis.

Just before the conference banquet, Professor Emeritus Vito Cappellini from the University of Florence will lecture on how DSP can pave the way to the creation of a digital culture in Fine Arts. The lecture will take place into the hall "Sala D'Arme" of Palazzo Vecchio, the banquet venue, for a limited number of attendees selected on a first-come-first-served policy. You will be asked about your intention to attend the lecture at the time of registration in Florence.

The gourmet dinner includes welcome drinks and refreshments, appetizer, starter, first course, main course with side dishes, desserts and gourmandises, selection of spirits, and wines.

The social event will begin with a welcome drink in the courtyards of the palace Cortile di Michelozzo and “The Customs” adorned with stuccoes and frescoes, and continues on the first floor in the Salone dei Cinquecento, where a majestic cycle of pictures celebrates the apotheosis of Cosimo de’ Medici and the city of Florence, and a rich array of statues accompany Michelangelo’s celebrated Victory.

In the museum at the second floor of the museum you will visit the private rooms of the Medici court, all sumptuously decorated and furnished, and among these the marvellous Cappella di Eleonora, the chapel with the celebrated portraits by Agnolo Bronzino. Important testimonies of the Palazzo’s oldest decorations are kept in the “Sala dell’Udienza” and the “Sala dei Gigli”, where the original of Donatello’s Judith is also found. In the “Sala delle Carte Geografiche” an exceptionally large globe and more than fifty painted panels provide an extraordinary glimpse of all the parts of the world known in the sixteenth century. The mezzanine floor houses a remarkable collection of paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages and Renaissance left to the city of Florence by Charles Loeser.

Palazzo Vecchio - History

The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence. This massive, Romanesque, crenellated fortress-palace is among the most impressive town halls of Tuscany. Overlooking the Piazza della Signoria with its copy of Michelangelo's David statue as well as the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi, it is one of the most significant public places in Italy.

Originally called the Palazzo della Signoria, after the Signoria of Florence, the ruling body of the Republic of Florence, it was also given several other names: Palazzo del Popolo, Palazzo dei Priori, and Palazzo Ducale, in accordance with the varying use of the palace during its long history. The building acquired its current name when the Medici duke's residence was moved across the Arno to the Palazzo Pitti.

In 1299, the commune and people of Florence decided to build a palace, worthy of the city's importance and giving greater security, in times of turbulence, to the magistrates. Arnolfo di Cambio, the architect of the Duomo and the Santa Croce church, began constructing it upon the ruins of Palazzo dei Fanti and Palazzo dell'Esecutore di Giustizia, once owned by the Uberti family. Giovanni Villani (1276–1348) wrote in his Nuova Cronica that the Uberti were "rebels of Florence and Ghibellines", stating that the plaza was built so that the Uberti family homes would never be rebuilt on the same location. Giovanni Villani wrote that Arnolfo di Cambio incorporated the ancient tower of the Foraboschi family (the tower then known as "La Vacca" or "The Cow") as the substructure of the tower into its facade; this is why the rectangular tower (height 94 m) is not directly centered in the building. This tower contains two small cells, that, at different times, imprisoned Cosimo de' Medici (the Elder) (1435) and Girolamo Savonarola (1498). The tower is named after its designer Torre d'Arnolfo. The solid cubicle shaped building is enhanced by the simple tower with its Giorgio Lederle's clock.

The large, one-handed clock was originally constructed by the Florentine Nicolò Bernardo, but was replaced in 1667 by a clock made by Vincenzo Viviani.

The cubical building is built in solid rusticated stonework, with two rows of two-lighted Gothic windows, each with a trefoil arch. Michelozzo Michelozzi added decorative bas-reliefs of the cross and the Florentine lily in the spandrels between the trefoils. The building is crowned with projecting crenellated battlement, supported by small arches and corbels. Under the arches are a repeated series of nine painted coats of arms of the Florentine republic. Some of these arches can be used as embrasures (spiombati) for dropping heated liquids or rocks on invaders.

Duke Cosimo I de' Medici moved his official seat from the Medici palazzo in via Larga to the Palazzo della Signoria in May 1540, signalling the security of Medici power in Florence. The name was officially changed after Cosimo removed to Palazzo Pitti, renaming his former palace the Palazzo Vecchio, the "Old Palace", although the adjacent town square, the Piazza della Signoria, still bears the old name. Cosimo commissioned Giorgio Vasari to build an above-ground walkway, the Vasari corridor, from the palace, through the Uffizi, over the Ponte Vecchio to the Palazzo Pitti.

Cosimo I also moved the seat of government to the Uffizi. The palace gained new importance as the seat of United Italy's provisional government from 1865–71, at a moment when Florence had become the temporary capital of the kingdom of Italy.

Although most of the Palazzo Vecchio is now a museum, it remains the symbol of local government: since 1872 it has housed the office of the mayor of Florence, and it is the seat of the City Council.