Gay Italy | LGBTQ+ Travel Gui, Italy Gay Rights & Safety Tips

Contents:

• WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAY MEN’S PRI FLAG, AND WHAT DO IT MEAN?
• A GAY ISLAND MUNY CREATED BY ITALY'S FASCISTS
• OUR 7 FAVOURE PLAC TO EXPERIENCE GAY ITALY
• ITALY FLAG GAY PRI RABOW FLAG STICKER
• ITALY FLAG GAY PRI RABOW FLAG ESSENTIAL T-SHIRT

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAY MEN’S PRI FLAG, AND WHAT DO IT MEAN?

One such flag is the Gay Men’s Pri Flag – a flag you might already have seen flown at any number of pri ftivals around the world, om New Orleans to Montreal…and everywhere between! Another lser-known pri flag is the gay men’s pri flag.

This morn gay men’s pri flag is a reimagg of a prev gay men’s pri flag wh a variety of blue ton. However, is fair to say that most gay men prefer to simply e an eratn of the rabow LGBTQ+ flag that is more reprentative of the entire queer muny.

Wh s many gay clubs, diss, B&B’s and beach, the cy offers a wi choice to anyone wantg to make the most of their holiday.

A GAY ISLAND MUNY CREATED BY ITALY'S FASCISTS

For travelers lookg to have fun one of Rome’s most betiful districts near the Colossm, Via San Gvanni Laterano, the so-lled Gay Street, is a mt: gay-iendly bars, clubs and rtrants all make for a social eveng.

OUR 7 FAVOURE PLAC TO EXPERIENCE GAY ITALY

Not to be missed is the Gay Village, one of the most important events hosted by the cy every summer, which attracts thoands of people. Another mt-do event is the Gay Pri Para, which ually tak place June and clus a march wh tens of thoands of people attendg. “If you love someone take them to Verona” is the Valente’s Day slogan for the cy of Romeo and Juliet, one of Italy’s most gay-iendly ci.

Take a stroll to Piazza Bra to admire the Roman Amphheatre and on to the monumental San Zeno Altarpiece by Andrea Mantegna ntug to Porta Nuova, the historic center wh the elegant Lucla Cafe, a gay-iendly hang out and the perfect place for an aperif. Torre l Lago is a very gay-iendly lotn Italy which rival Sg and Mykonos, and ’s betiful Tny.

Catania is a young and dynamic cy, which boasts an active gay scene thanks to s many shops, pubs and bars. The historil gay hangout Catania cy center is Via Alsi, around Nievki: a bar and an alternative rtrant which has been welg to LGBT people sce the ‘70s. For over twenty years between late June and early July, the cy is flood by the lors of the rabow flag wh a seri of iativ crowng the tradnal Catania Gay Pri Para.

ITALY FLAG GAY PRI RABOW FLAG STICKER

Taorma is one of the most gay-iendly statns on Sicily, an ial statn year round, thanks to the d climate and the foc on fun, relaxatn and joie vivre as well as the warm hospaly of the Sicilian people. Seventy-five years ago Fascist Italy, a group of gay men were labelled "generate", expelled om their hom and terned on an island. They were held unr a prison regime - but some found life the untry's first openly gay muny a liberatg summer, tourists are drawn to the bety of a ty strg of rocky islands the jt recently a group of visors me to the Tremi archipelago not so much to enjoy the peace and lm of this remote place as to were gay, lbian and transgenr rights had e to hold a small ceremony durg which they would mark a shameful episo that unfold the islands more than 70 years the late 1930s the archipelago played a part the effort by Beno Msoli's Fascists to supprs homosexualy.

Gay men unrmed the image that the dictator wanted to project of Italian manhood. So the Italians are strong, mascule, and 's impossible that homosexualy n exist a Fascist regime, " says profsor of history at the Universy of Bergamo, Lorenzo the strategy was to ver up the issue as much as discrimatory laws were passed.

But a climate was created which open maniftatns of homosexualy uld be vigoroly one particular police prefect the Sicilian cy of Catania took full advantage of the official mood.

ITALY FLAG GAY PRI RABOW FLAG ESSENTIAL T-SHIRT

" So 1938 around 45 men believed to be homosexuals Catania were round up and nsigned to ternal exile. They eventually found themselv about 600km away on the island of San Domo, the ptn, The 2008 graphic novel In Italia Sono Tutti Maschi tells the story of gay people exiled unr fascismThe whole episo has been largely 's thought that nobody who endured this punishment is still alive today, and there are few tailed acunts of what went on their book, The Island and the Cy, rearchers Gianan Goretti and Tommaso Giartosi talk of dozens of men, most but not all om Catania, endurg harsh ndns on San would arrive handcuffed, and then be hoed large, spartan dormori wh no electricy or nng water. "We were cur bee they were lled 'the girls', " says Carmela Santoro, an islanr who was jt a child when the gay exil began to arrive.

"The prisoners knew the exposure of their homosexualy would have ed shame and anguish for their fai back home eply nservative towns and of that mood is ptured a letter om the son of a Sicilian peasant, who had been trag to be a prit when he was round up. Unwtgly, the Fascists had created a rner of Italy where you were expected to be openly gay. For the first time their liv, the men were a place where they uld be themselv - ee of the stigma that normally surround them voutly Catholic 1930s this meant to the exil was explaed a rare terview wh a San Domo veteran, named only as Gieppe B - published many years ago the gay magaze, Babilonia - who said that a way the men were better off on the island.

"In those days if you were a femmella [a slang Italian word for a gay man] you uldn't even leave your home, or make yourself noticed - the police would arrt you, " he said of his home town near Napl. Some prisoners wept, Gieppe said, when the outbreak of World War II 1939 led to the end of the ternal exile regime on San Domo, and the men were returned to a kd of hoe arrt the plac where they me ptn, Tremi/MPA number of gay men were terned along wh polil prisoners on other small islands, such as Usti and Lampsa, but San Domo was the only one where all the exil were is eply ironic that the Italy of that time, they uld fd a gree of eedom only on a prison party of gay and lbian rights activists who gathered on the archipelago the other day put down a plaque memory of the exil.

It will be a permanent remr of Msoli's persecutn of homosexuals. "This is necsary, bee nobody speaks of what happened those years, " said one of the activists, Ivan Slfarotto, a Member of the sufferg hasn't end for Italy's gay muny, he says.

There is still no real social stigma attached to homophobia Italy, Slfarotto says, and the state don't extend legal rights of any kd to gay or lbian stggle for equaly go n follow the Magaze on Twter and on Facebook.

The Vatin Mms even has a number of homoerotic piec of art and a vis to this magnificent llectn is certaly orr.

For visors lookg for an LGBTQ+ scene, the relatively small but spired gay nightlife is only steps away om the Colism. Leonardo Da Vci’s legacy Milan is well known and many historians agree that he was a gay artist leavg his mark many masterpiec of the cy, cludg The Last Supper, hoed by the refectory of the nvent of Santa Maria lle Grazie.

Though smaller than Rome, Milan stands out wh Italy’s largt and most visible gay scene. There are also many wonrful lser-known plac where an tert LGBTQ+ history uld lead you, such as Florence's Bargello Mm, which ntas an earlier Renaissance statue of David by the artist Donatello—the first ee-standg male nu sce Classil Antiquy, and a super-sexy homoerotic nu at that. Bologna and Tur are very gay-iendly statns northern Italy.

One of the most gay-iendly areas Southern Italy is Puglia, cludg the beachsi town of Gallipoli, which has recently bee a popular statn for LGBTQ+ lols.