9th International CONFERENCE on VIBRATION MEASUREMENTS BY LASER AND NONCONTACT TECHNIQUES & SHORT COURSE Ancona, 22-25 June 2010

VENUE The Conference will be held in the Tower of the Faculty of Engineering, Polytecnic University of Marches (former University of Ancona), in a modern complex of buildings situated on a hill facing Ancona’s beautiful harbour.  The Conference will take place in the Aula Magna and in room 160/3 (for parallel sessions).  In order to facilitate orientation in the Faculty, each floor is identified by its altitude above sea level.  The main entrance to the Tower is at level 160, floor #1, while the Aula Magna is at level 150, floor #-1. On the same floor as the Aula Magna there is also the Exhibition area and the Conference Registration desk.

HOW TO REACH THE FACULTY
The venue can be reached by # 46 bus which leaves from Piazza Cavour (click here to see map) in the town centre, and stops right in front of the Faculty of Engineering.
The bus runs every 10 mins and the journey takes about 15 mins.

For participants lodging at Grand Hotel Palace and NH Jolly Hoteles:
the venue can be reached by # 1/4 bus which leaves from Piazza Kennedy (click here to see map), near the Muse theatre, and stops at the Faculty terminal in Tavernelle. From the terminal in Tavernelle take bus # 46 to the Faculty main entrance gate.
Bus # 1/4 runs every 7 mins and the journey to Tavernelle takes about 20 mins.
 

ANCONA
Ancona is situated in the centre of Italy, in the Marches Region, on a beautiful harbour on the Adriatic Sea, 210 km northeast of Rome and 200 km southeast of Bologna.
It’s Greek name, Angon, means elbow. The promontory where Ancona was built, in fact, has the shape of an elbow.

TRAVELLING TO ANCONA
Ancona can be easily reached
by plane: "Raffaello Sanzio" airport in Falconara (10 Km from Ancona) (http://www.aeroportomarche.com/index.php?lang=english)
by train: Milano - Bologna - Lecce and Roma - Falconara railways (http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/homepage_en.html)
by car: Motorway A14 Bologna - Taranto: Ancona Nord and Ancona Sud exits (http://www.autostrade.it/en/index.html)
by ship: shipping lines from/ to Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Ciprus, Albania and Crete (http://www.comune.ancona.it/tourism/contesti/Tourism/citta/muoversi/9920_ship.html)

HISTORY

Ancona was founded from Syracuse about 387 BC. Its history is closely connected with Imperial Rome. It is not certain when it became a Roman colony. It was occupied as a naval station in the Illyrian War of 178 BC (Livy xli. i). Julius Caesar took possession of the town immediately after crossing the Rubicon. Its harbour was extremely important in imperial times because of its closeness to Dalmatia, and was enlarged by Trajan, who constructed the north quay with his Syrian architect Apollodorus of Damascus. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Ancona underwent a series of attacks by the Goths, Lombards and Saracens. But it soon recovered its strength and importance. It was one of the cities of the Pentapolis under the exarchate of Ravenna, an administrative unit of the Byzantine Empire. With the Carolingian conquest of northern Italy, it became the capital of the Marca di Ancona, from which the name of the modern region derives. After 1000 Ancona became increasingly independent, eventually turning into an important maritime republic, often clashing against the nearby power of Venice.

An oligarchic republic, Ancona was ruled by six Elders, elected by the three terzieri into which the city was divided: S. Pietro, Porto and Capodimonte. It had a coin of its own, the agontano, and a series of laws known as Statuti del mare e del Terzenale and Statuti della Dogana. Ancona was usually allied with Ragusa and the Byzantine Empire. In 1137, 1167 and 1174 it was strong enough to push back imperial forces. Anconitan ships took part to the Crusades, and his navigators include Cyriac of Ancona. In the struggle between the Popes and the Emperors that troubled Italy from the 12th century onwards, Ancona sided for Guelphs.The Malatesta took the city in 1348 taking advantage of the black death and of a fire that had destroyed much of the buildings. The Malatesta were ousted in 1383.
In 1532 it lost definitively its freedom and became part of the Papal States, under Pope Clement VII. Symbol of the papal authority was the massive Citadel. Together with Rome and Avignon, Ancona was the sole city in the Papal States in which the Jews were allowed to stay after 1569, living into the ghetto built after 1555.
Pope Clement XII extended the quay, and an inferior imitation of Trajan's arch was set up; he also erected a Lazaretto at the south end of the harbor, Luigi Vanvitelli being the architect-in-chief. The southern quay was built in 1880, and the harbour was protected by forts on the heights.
From 1797 onwards, when the French took it, it frequently appears in history as an important fortress, until Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière capitulated here on 29 September 1860, eleven days after his defeat at Castelfidardo.

FOOD AND WINE
Typical dishes and wines of Ancona and the area you must absolutely taste in one of the many small characteristic restaurants/ trattorie:

Stockfish Ancona style
Brodetto all'Anconetana
Vincisgrassi
	Rosso Conero
	Verdicchio

For other interesting information on the flavours of Ancona and its region: http://www.flavorofitaly.com/marche.php
For further information on Ancona visit http://www.comune.ancona.it/tourism/