VENUE AND GENERAL INFORMATION


NOSE2012 will be held at
NH Hotels
Foro Italico, 90133 Palermo, Italy
click to view the map

The NH Palermo has 226 spacious rooms and a congress center with 11 meeting rooms, all equipped with natural light, located on the picturesque Gulf of the city and enjoys breathtaking views across the sea. The hotel is close to the historic district and the central train station. The hotel offers a large outdoor swimming pool, parking which care only reserved for the hotels clients.

How to reach NH Hotels:
By car
From the motorway, follow the signs for "Porto", the hotel is situated along the sea front about 1km from the port.
For navigator users: look for Via Foro Umberto I°
By train
The hotel is very close to the central station - about 900mt, 5 minutes by taxi and 15 minutes by foot (along Via Lincoln).
From the airport
Take the underground until the central station and then catch a taxi; taking a taxi directly from the airport to the hotel will take around 40 minutes.

Distance to the airport: 35.00km
Distance to the train station: 1.00km
Distance to the city center: 2.00km
GPS coordinates
Latitude:38.115304901923324
Longitude:13.374996185302734

How to reach Palermo
By plane
Falcone Borsellino Airport
Palermo Airport is about 35km for Palermo. For all the connections with the airport please click here

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Palermo is the regional capital of Sicily, which is the largest and most heavily populated (about 5,000,000) island in the Mediterranean.
The area has been under numerous dominators over the centuries, including Roman, Carthaginian, Byzantine, Greek, Arab, Norman, Swabian and Spanish masters. Due to this past, to the cultural exchange that for millennia has taken place in the area, the city is still an exotic mixtute of many cultures. Many of the monuments still exist giving the city somewhat unique appearance.

The city of Palermo, including the province of Palermo, has around 1,300,000 inhabitants and has about 200 Km of coastline. The old town of Palermo is one of the largest in Europe, full of references to the past. Palermo reflects the diverse history of the region in that the city contains many masterpieces from different periods, including romanesque, gothic, renaissance and baroque architecture as well as examples of modern art. The city also hosts it's rich vegetation of palm trees, prickly pears, bananas, lemon trees and so on. The abundance of exotic species was also noticed by the world-famous German writer Goethe who in April 1787 visited the newly opened botanical gardens, describing them as "the most beautiful place on earth".
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WHAT TO SEE










Teatro Massimo

It is one of the largest theatres in Europe (7730 mq), a neoclassical masterpiece started by Giovanni Battista Basile in 1875 and completed by his son Ernesto in 1897. Recently restored, it is now the lyrical temple of the city, staging the opera and ballet official season.

Politeama Garibaldi
Standing in the main square of the city, which was and is one of the largest and most beautiful in Italy, this Neoclassical theatre was built by Giuseppe Almeyda between 1867 and 1874. Before the restoration of the more famous Massimo Theatre, it was the most important theatre in the city. The entrance is framed by a triumphal arch, surmounted by a bronze Apollo’s quadriga.
The theatre represents a development of the typical XIX century theatre architecture, as it was destined to stage different kinds of shows and to allow the vision of such show to all social classes.

Cappella Palatina
Built in 1130, year of King Roger II’s crowning, inside the Norman Palace, it is definitely one of the most famous sights in Palermo. Covered in dazzling Byzantine mosaics (akin to those in the church of the Martorana and in the Monreale Cathedral), it is a symbol of the political and cultural union operated by the Normans.

Cattedrale
When walking in Corso Vittorio Emanuele (the Cassaro) towards the Norman Palace, you will unexpectedly run into the Cathdral, with its spire towers, its double lancet windows, its intertwined and pointed arches. Rising among the narrow streets and the 3 or 4 storey buildings of the Cassaro, it is fantastically majestic. Built in 1184, it still preserves its original structure in spite of the changes brought along the centuries, the most relevant of which was the addition of the aisles and of the baroque dome at the end of the XVIII century. The Cathedral features some sculptures by Gagini, together with Henry VI, Frederick II and Constance of Aragon’s tombs, but also some verses from the Koran engraved on a column and the silver urn housing the remains of S. Rosalia, patroness of Palermo.

Chiesa e Chiostro di S.Giovanni degli Eremiti
Built on the will of Roger II, the Norman king who considered art as a mean to rule, between 1130 and 1148, the church is famous for the typical Arabian-Fatimite red domes. Its round domes, representing the sky, placed upon quadrangular towers, representing the Earth, make it one of the symbols of Palermo. The building is surrounded by a garden, rich is exotic colours and smells such as the one of jasmine, oranges and pomegranates; it also features a small cloister.

Museo delle Marionette "A. Pasqualino"
Set in 1975 by the Association for the preservation of folk traditions, the Antonio Pasqualino International puppet museum has constantly taken its inspiration from modern museology and theatre activities, becoming one of the best examples of museography research on theatre. The museum hosts 3500 items from all around the world.

Il Capo
Situated in the present day Palazzo Reale-Monte di Pietà neighbourhood, it presents the typical Arabian market plan and stretches all the way to the square bearing its same name, among via Beati Paoli, via Porta Carini, via S.Agostino, via Cappuccinelle and discesa dell’Eternità. Rising in the upper part of the ancient Hârat-as-Saqâlibah, the Slavonians neighbourhood, named Seralcadio in the Norman period, its name (Il Capo, the top) stems from the fact that the district where it was created occupied the upper part of the neighbourhood. This market surely has Arabian origins; it is named platea publica Seralcadi in some end of the XIII century documents and later, in another document, platea magna. It is proven that it was a grascia (food) and fish market, and today it is still renowned for the very good quality of the fish.
It was correctly stated that the Capo market resisted to all attempts to modify it, from the building of a bigger market nearby in 1874 to the urban rearrangement of the Concezione neighbourhood in 1935, and finally the 1943 bombings and the depopulation of the central neighbourhoods of the city. Together with Ballarò, this market will help you imagining how life was in Saracen Palermo, with the most typical Palermitan smells, tastes, colours and voices. Visiting this market will get you in touch with the people who live among old merchants and new traders, both experiencing the problems of a modern city and living with and giving new life to their most sincere traditions.

Galleria Regionale Siciliana
The Sicilian Regional Gallery is housed by Palazzo Abatellis, built in 1495 by Matteo Carneliveri, in the gothic-Catalan style, but also presenting some Renaissance features. On the ground floor sculpture from the XII to the XVI century is displayed. Major ancient works of art feature the wooden architectural elements with geometric patterns carved on, dating back to the XII century. Among the XV century works of art, there is the famous marble bust of Eleonora of Aragon, by Francesco Laurana. The first floor features the picture gallery, housing works of art from the XII to the XVI century, showing the evolution of Sicilian painting schools. The museum also houses Our Lady of the Annunciation by Antonello da Messina.

Palazzo Reale o dei Normanni
Built in the IX century on Punic and Roman remains, it has always been the see of Sicilian and Palermitan governors: emirs, kings and viceroys lived in this building, which today houses the Sicilian Regional Parliament. The Palace features the dazzling Palatine Chapel and many outstanding rooms, such as king Roger’s room, the Pompeian room, the Room of the Duke of Montalto and the room of Hercules.

Palazzo Abatellis
Palazzo Abatellis was built in 1495 by Matteo Carneliveri, in the gothic-Catalan style, but it also present some Renaissance features. On the ground floor sculpture from the XII to the XVI century is displayed. Major ancient works of art feature the wooden architectural elements with geometric patterns carved, dating back to the XII century. Among the XV century works of art, there is the famous marble bust of Eleonora of Aragon, by Francesco Laurana. The first floor features the picture gallery, housing works of art from the XII to the XVI century, showing the evolution of Sicilian painting schools. The museum also houses Our Lady of the Annunciation by Antonello da Messina.

Museo Archeologico Regionale Salinas
The Palermo Archaeological Museum is based in the XVIII century Convent of the Oratorians, annexed to the church of S. Ignazio all’Olivella. It features several collections, which only partially manage to give a global and coherent vision of Western Sicily ancient history, but which document all the main steps of archaeological research on the island. Such research was promoted in he XIX and XX century by important representatives of Sicilian culture such as Michele Amari, Antonio Salinas and Ettore Gabrici. Two large statues representing Zeus and dating back to II century B.C. are worth seeing, together with Selinunte’s metops, representing Demetra an Persephone, Apllo’s quadriga, Perseus killng the Gorgons, Hercules and the Cercopians, etc.
Roman-hellenistic statues coming from the Tindari and Solunto sites are displayed n the main cloister.

Castello della Zisa - Museo d'Arte Islamica
Several significant Islamic artefacts, coming from the Mediterranean basin, are displayed in this museum. These feature the elegant masrabiyya , wooden grated screens, composed of hundreds of reels forming refined and light ornamental designs and motifs, together with common tools or some furnishings (candlesticks, bowls, basins, mortars), mainly made in copper and engraved, often enriched with gold and silver thin layers and threads.

Orto Botanico di Palermo
Set up in 1875 on a design by architects Leon Du Fourny and Venanzio Marvuglia, it is one of the most significant botanical gardens in Europe for the richness and abundance of vegetable specimen coming from all over the world.

Useful links

http://www.comune.palermo.it/

http://www.amat.pa.it/

http://www.trenitalia.com/