Lodging
Villa Vigoni is offering 19 single rooms, 9 double rooms with twin beds and 3 double rooms with 1 large bed. In the updates web page, we will ask people to specify their choice in the registration form. In case the number of people exceeds the lodging capacity, the Staff at Villa Vigoni will help with nearby hotels, but I have the feeling it will not happen. By registering, we will know of your arrival and look after your accomodation.
Cost for lodging (bed & breakfast): 86 EUR/night for single rooms, 63 EUR/night/person in double rooms. Not cheap, but the place is definitely worth. By the way, the Como Lake is not a cheap place and it would have been impossible to get something even comparable for a similar price elsewhere [remember Villa Vigoni is a no profit cultural centre, actually owned by the German Governament and conveniently located in Italy...]
Cost for meals: 25 EUR/lunch and 32 for Dinner.
Standard package being offered: 3 x bb + 2 x lunch (April 22, 23) + 2 x dinner (April 21, 22) for a cost of 372 EUR [303 in case accommodation in double room is chosen]. Of course, people may add extra's like lunch on the arrival and departure date; but, for organizational matter, it would be advisable to declare it by the time of the registration.
For people flying in the day before or departing the day after: it is likely an arrangement is possible at Villa Vigoni, but I honestly would not advise it, at least for 2 reasons:
a. it may be nice to profit of the free time to visit the city of Como and the surroundings
b. most of the people will fly in through Malpensa Airport; there are good train connections from Como (roughly 1-1,5 hours, depending on the time of the day) but travelling from Menaggio may introduce a little bit of unpredictability. In case of an early morning flight, I would certainly not do it.
Anyway, I suggest we discuss and fix the boundary conditions on a person by person base. For the 3 people who registered already: just drop me a message and we will take care of you.
a. it may be nice to profit of the free time to visit the city of Como and the surroundings
b. most of the people will fly in through Malpensa Airport; there are good train connections from Como (roughly 1-1,5 hours, depending on the time of the day) but travelling from Menaggio may introduce a little bit of unpredictability. In case of an early morning flight, I would certainly not do it.
Anyway, I suggest we discuss and fix the boundary conditions on a person by person base. For the 3 people who registered already: just drop me a message and we will take care of you.
Traveling to Villa Vigoni
It is interesting by itself...The most charming way is by a ferry-boat, leaving close to the Como railway station and heading to Menaggio. Villa Vigoni is off the village and we will provide reference phone numbers to reach us and the Villa, so that we can pick you up/rescue you... Since the number of people attending the meeting will not be a crowd, we can also imagine to cluster people as they arrive at the station and drive you from Como to Menaggio; we did it by the time we organized Vertex 2004 and it was fun and effective. Again, timetable and options will be offered by the time of the registration.
Conference fee, dinner& social events
Presuming to have about 30 people to share the cost of the conference room, taking into account the cost of coffee breaks and secretariat, I would propose to fix the fee at 110 EUR, including the conference dinner scheduled on April 23rd, possibly off the Villa (a few options being considered at the moment)
It would honestly be foolish not to profit from being in such a beautiful place and we propose to have one afternoon session only on April 23, breaking at about 3 pm. Getting to the Village on foot or by car pooling and, for whoever wishes to do so, to go to Bellagio by public ferry boat. Touring, exploring, getting together by dinner time and back to the Villa. Profiting from the ferry would make the cost very very low and it might really be fun. In case someone wishes, we can split and offer as well a short trek on the trails starting from the Villa, up the hills, but we can decide on the spot.
