New & Coming Soon to Italy
• The city of Padua, in northern Italy’s Veneto region, will debut its new conference center in 2022. Located in the northern part of the Fiera di Padova exhibition center, the new conference facility will accommodate 3,500 attendees. Planners can make use of the venue’s two auditoriums, one with 1,600 seats and the other with 1,090, as well as five multipurpose rooms.
• Set to debut in late 2021 is the W Rome. The 162-room property, located near the Spanish Steps, is
set inside two revamped 19th-century structures, and will have 645
square feet of event space as well as a gym and spa. Dining and entertainment
options include Giano, a Sicilian restaurant headed by Michelin-starred chef
Ciccio Sultano, Zucchero x
Fabrizio Fiorani, a dessert purveyor, and Otto, a rooftop bar and restaurant.
• Now open in Florence is Il Tornabuoni, a 62‐room luxury hotel set in the 12th‐century Palazzo Minerbetti. Part of The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, the property has five restaurants, a fitness center and one small meeting room.
• Extensive renovations have brought new sheen to the Helvetia & Bristol Florence, a member of Leading Hotels of the World near the Palazzo Strozzi. The property, which dates to 1885, has restored its historic wing, refurbished existing guest rooms and added an additional 25 rooms to its inventory. A new restaurant, the Bristol Winter Garden, features a 12-seat dining area available for private events, and a new pastry boutique, headed by Italian master pastry Chef Iginio Massari, is to open soon.
• Among the latest hotels in Italy to reopen its doors to guests and groups is Toscana
Resort Castelfalfi, a member
of Preferred Hotels and Resorts, perched in the Tuscan countryside. Designed as
a nature-based retreat, the 151-room property offers various activities and diversions,
including spa treatments, cooking classes truffle hunting, horseback riding,
swimming in the indoor and outdoor pools and golfing at the 27-hole Castelfalfi
Golf Club. Meeting and event space is also available on-site.
• Fans of Harry’s Bar Firenze, a legendary Florence bar and restaurant that
dates to 1953, now have a new option for enjoying its legendary ambiance. The
company has opened a second restaurant, Harry’s Bar The Garden,
at the Sina Villa Medici hotel
(https://www.sinahotels.com/en/h/sina-villa-medici-florence/), a 99-room luxury
hotel in Florence that’s a member of Marriott International’s Luxury
Collection. Located in the property’s poolside garden, the new dining venue
serves specialties including antipasti, pasta, meat and fish.
• Two new luxury properties,perfect for incentive groups, are coming soon to Southern Italy. On Sicily, the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Taormina is to open in 2021. The 111-room property, set in a 14th-century convent and offers stunning views of Mount Etna and an ancient Greek theater, has 18,300 square feet of meeting and event space. In Puglia, on the southeast Adriatic coast of Italy, a 150-room Four Seasons property is being built. At press time, an opening date had not been announced.
More Meeting & Event Venues in Italy
- In Florence, the Palazzo dei Congressi provides a beautiful setting for groups within the 19th‐century Villa Vittoria. The venue features a 1,000‐seat auditorium, as well as event spaces graced with painted glass windows and original mosaic floors. For large groups, the venue can easily be combined with another noteworthy nearby facility: the Fortezza da Basso, which was originally commissioned by the first Duke of Florence in the 14th century. With an overall surface of more than 861,000 square feet, the historic venue is often used for trade fairs.
- Groups looking for a truly rejuvenating experience can stay at the 124-room Terme di Saturnia Natural Spa & Golf Resort, which reopened in 2020 in Tuscany’s Maremma countryside. The property offers a variety of health-minded programs for attendees, including spa treatments with water from a thermal spring that has attracted visitors for centuries. The hotel has a 250-person meeting room and a championship golf course.
- In the magical city of Venice, top choices for meetings and events include the Venice Convention Center, which includes the 1,032‐seat Palazzo del Cinema, host of the famed Venice International Film Festival. The Palazzo del Casino, meanwhile, hosts gala dinners, meetings, with multiple theaters, meeting rooms and more than 37,673 square feet of exhibition space.
- Another Venice venue of note is the Arsenale di Venezia, a historic group of former shipyards and armories that dates to 1104. The facility provides a variety of dramatic backdrops for events, including indoor and outdoor spaces for meetings, receptions, dinners and exhibitions. The largest single indoor space measures 37,674 square feet.
- Punta della Dogana, a former Venice customs house, was built in the 17th century on the San Marco basin. The beautiful tower and sculpture of two Atlases creates visual intrigue for temporary art exhibitions as well as meetings and events. Reopened to the public in May 2021, the venue features the Cube, a 2,110‐square‐ foot central event space, a 743‐square‐foot café and three terraces, each of which measure nearly 260 square feet.
- The northern Italian city of Rimini is another popular destination for hosting meetings and events in Italy. At the Palacongressi di Rimini, planners can make use of a high-tech, eco‐friendly space that includes more than 118,000 square feet of exhibit space and 39 meeting rooms, and offers an on-site studio for hybrid events.
- In the southern Italian city of Naples, the Stazione Marittima di Napoli offers 18 meeting rooms that accommodate between 20 and 1,800 delegates. Adjacent to the venue is the Smart Hotel Napoli, which opened in 2020 with 59 rooms, a business center and meeting space.