Venue

The meeting takes place in the Auditorium, located on the third level of the main building of the Lugano campus of USI.

Accommodation:

For your convenience, hotels are listed in order of increasing distance from the University campus.

People looking for cheaper options may be interested in the Youth Hostel, which offers a bed in shared rooms starting from 37 CHF (~30 €).

How to reach Lugano

By train

You can check the train schedule and make the booking at www.sbb.ch. Lugano have direct train connections departing from:

  • Zurich and Luzern: Travel time approximately 2 hours.
  • Basel and Bern: Travel time approximately 3.5 hours.
  • Geneva and Lausanne: Travel time approximately 5 hours.

By car

  • Coming from Milan: You can take the Laghi A9 motorway in the direction of Como-San Gottardo or the A8 motorway in the direction of Varese-Stabio (Gaggiolo). Advised exit: Lugano Sud.
  • Coming from Zurich: You can take the A2 motorway in the direction of San Gottardo-Chiasso-Italy. Advised exit: Lugano Nord.

Please remember that to drive on Swiss motorways it is necessary to be equipped with the motorway sticker that is to be applied onto the car windshield (the cost: 40 CHF valid from Jan-Dec) it may be purchased at Customs (more information).

Warning: Free/cheap parking spots in Lugano are very limited; thus, if you are coming by car, we advise you to book an hotel which provides a parking place. For more information about parking in Lugano, click here.

By plane

Lugano has a small airport (Lugano-Agno (LUG)) that is currently operating direct flights from Zurich and Geneva only. From the airport it is possible to reach Lugano either by public transport or by taxi or shuttle.

Local Transportation

Lugano is a small city, thus city centre, train station and the university campus are all within walking distance to each other (10 to 15 minutes walks). As an alternative, from the Lugano train station there is a funicular to the city centre which run continuously all day from 05:20 untill 23:50 hours (ticket: 1.10 CHF). There is a network of buses for travelling within Lugano and its immediate outskirts, operated by Trasporti Pubblici Luganesi (TPL; the website is in Italian only, but you may still find useful the map and the timetable for all the lines).
Nearby villages can be reached using the regional buses Autolinee Regionali Luganesi (ARL) and the yellow coaches (operated by the postal system and locally called “AutoPostale“). Click here for further information.

You can search the connections and bus schedules online on the SBB website.

All the above mentioned transport companies (including regional trains) are combined in the fare network Arcobaleno.

Reaching the University

The venue is located within walking distance to downtown Lugano. Of course you can also reach the University by using the local bus network. Buses from important stops are listed below:

  • From train station: You can take line no. 6 (direction: Cornaredo) from “Lugano, Stazione” to “Lugano, Università”.
  • From city centre: You can take either line no. 5 (direction: Viganello) from “Lugano, Centro” to “Lugano, Università”, or line no. 7 (direction: Pregassona) from “Lugano, Centro” to “Lugano, Sacro Cuore”.