Venue and Accomodation

IWSDS 2019 will be held at Ortea Palace Luxury Hotel, Ortigia, Siracusa (SR).
Ortigia is the historical centre of Siracusa, and it is connected to mainland Sicilia by two bridges.


Transportation

Let’s first tell you that Ortigia is the historical center of the city of Siracusa, and it is a pedestrian area. Therefore, motor vehicles are not allowed in Ortigia. Nevertheless, a 17-minute walk will take you from the Siracusa railway station to the IWSDS 2019 venue if you arrived by train. If you had instead opted for riding the bus, we suggest you get off at the Corso Umberto bus stop, and a 17-minute walk will take you to the IWSDS 2019 venue. We suggests you to catch a taxi once you arrive to Siracusa by either bus or train, since it should not be too expensive. A taxi can indeed take you very close to the IWSDS 2019 hotel and/or your hotel.

You can reach the venue area from both Catania and Palermo international airports, though the first one is much more convenient.

From Catania Fontanarossa International Airport, you can get to the hotel by the following three options.

Train

Trenitalia Intercity operates a train from Catania Centrale railway station to Siracusa. Timetable can be found here. Tickets cost 13€ – 20€ and the journey takes 1 hour and 8 minutes.
Please, be aware that you have to get to Catania downtown from the airpot to catch a train to Siracusa.
The Metropolitan BusServices AMT “ALIBUS” (Toll Free Number: 800 018696) can be used to get to Catania downtown. AMT Alibus Service operates every 20 minutes from 05:00 A.M. to midnight, from the Airport to the City Centre and the Train Station. The journey takes around 10 – 20 minutes (~10 Km). Taxi services also connect the Catania airport to Catania City Centre.

Bus

Autolinee Interbus (link) operates a bus from the Catania airport to Siracusa. Tickets cost 7€ – 15€, and the journey takes 1 hour and 20 minutes. The bus area is right out of the airport exit.

Taxi

Taxi cost 95€ – 120€.
• SOCIAL TAXI CATANIA (Tel.: +39 095 330966 |link)
• TAXI SAT SERVICE (Tel.: +39 095 6188 |link).

From Palermo International Airport Falcone Borsellino.

If you were to use a taxi, the journey may take you ~4 hours and would be expensive. To arrive by bus to Siracusa from the airport, you need to get to the Palermo Centrale railway station first (1 hour); the bus station would be right out of the railway station. The journey on the bus would take around 4 hours, or more. For the sake of completeness, the Palermo Centrale railway station can be directly reached from the airport by train. Palermo Airport has its own railway station (its name is “Punta Raisi”), where you can catch a train to Palermo, the train service is called “Trinacria Express”. The train station is directly under the airport terminal in the designated underground rail facility. Travel time to and from the main railway station Palermo Centrale is 60 minutes. The ticket price is €5.80 per person. Timetable can be found here – From Punta Raisi to Palermo Centrale. Then you can decide whether to come to Siracusa by train or by bus. If you decided to come by train, we suggest you to direcly buy a ticket from Punta Raisi to Siracusa, yet you can buy separate tickets too, one from Punta Raisi to Palermo Centrale, and one from Palermo Centrale to Siracusa.

Accomodation

There is a wide variety of hotels within a walking distance from the meeting venue.

5 Stars Hotels

4 Stars Hotels

3 Stars Hotels