What Happened When a Young Gay Man Met Strangers on an Italian Tra

Contents:

• OUR 7 FAVOURE PLAC TO EXPERIENCE GAY ITALY
• IL TURISMO LGBTQ | PUGLIA – ITALY’S GAY SUMMER PARADISE
• A GAY ISLAND MUNY CREATED BY ITALY'S FASCISTS
• 10 COUNTRI WH THE BIGGT GAY POPULATNS THE WORLD
• SPIAGGIA D’AYALA | GAY BEACH GUI
• GAY MILAN
• BT GAY CY ITALY? - ITALY FOM
• THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A YOUNG GAY MAN MET STRANGERS ON AN ITALIAN TRA
• GAY VENICE
• ITALY GAY TRAVEL
• ORTHODOX 'PRITS' STRIP OFF FOR GAY LENDAR THEY SAY WILL BRG 'HOPE, JOY AND FORT'
• GAY PALERMO

OUR 7 FAVOURE PLAC TO EXPERIENCE GAY ITALY

On the face of LGBT Italy looks somewhat downbeat, but squt a ltle harr and you’ll soon fd a diverse range of gay venu suable for dancg, cisg and dulgg steamy sna meet-cut.

From the sizzlg beach hangouts of Puglia to the lourful cliff towns of Tny, the are our seven favoure plac to experience gay Italy. The bt beach Puglia ter to all orientatns and n be hard to distguish between gay and straight lols. All e tanned and sntily drsed, treatg the beach as nature’s twalk and msg wh our ually reliable gaydar.

Here you’ll fd some of the bt gay hangouts, wh the ultimate gay beach Italy wh a short ri of Gallipoli. To get your full k off good gay pany, travel one hour north to D’Ayala nudist beach.

IL TURISMO LGBTQ | PUGLIA – ITALY’S GAY SUMMER PARADISE

At night, the town be all the more gay-iendly, particularly at gay bars like Shatulle where both lols and ternatnal gather good pany.

While gay-n bs are few and far between, most nightlife the town is to be nsired gay-iendly, wh Iso Gut Hoe holdg a great reputatn among the LGBTQ+ muny. Said to be one of the most gay-iendly ci the regn, Catania go hand hand wh Taorma for gay travellers seekg culture, herage and low-key partyg.

A GAY ISLAND MUNY CREATED BY ITALY'S FASCISTS

A btlg port cy ma famo by s proximy to Mount Etna and UNESCO-listed baroque archecture, Gay Catania attracts a young and dynamic crowd who breathe life to the old town wh rabow buntg and artsy muny spac. The gay scene here is a lively one, centred and around Nievki, the meetg pot of the queer muny.

One of the town’s most historic gay hangouts is Via Alsi, an alternative bar and rtrant which has weled LGBT people sce the 1970s. The climax for gay Sicily and the queer lendar arriv late June each year when gays and advot take to the streets for Catania Gay Pri Para.

10 COUNTRI WH THE BIGGT GAY POPULATNS THE WORLD

As culture grows more liberal, the vibrancy of the gay muny grows wh , allowg for a sctive mix of gay dance parti, snas and cisg spots among the pal’s many cultural hotspots. A beach day is also an optn while Rome; simply travel southwt for epic sunset views on goln sand beach, stoppg at Ostia, Anz, Sperlonga or wherever tak your your troductn to Gay Rome by fanng out east om the Colossm along Via San Gvanni, a social street led wh gay-iendly bars, clubs and rtrants. Align your vis wh the summer-long Gay Village ftival, one of the most important events the cy’s gay lendar which se Par l Nfeo and surroundg neighbourhoods bee overn wh LGBT street parti, live mic, performance art, film screengs and more.

On all other ocsns, start off any one of Rome’s highbrow cktail bars and microbreweri, lowerg the tone later on at an unrground fetish party, wild gay club or good ol’ fashned gay dis. Get to know gay travel Italy more pth before you travel, startg wh our Rome travel | Photo: Josh Stewart5. Drawg parisons wh Mykonos and Sg, Torre l Lago is a beachsi town offerg lh landsp, gged ast and a ton of gay-iendly nightlife offergs to keep you by.

SPIAGGIA D’AYALA | GAY BEACH GUI

Walk the promena to fd the village’s ma llectn of gay bars, pubs and clubs, an area which serv as both the lotn of the annual Mardi Gras event and gateway to the town’s biggt gay beach. MilanMol of the term ‘smopolan cy break’, Milan tops the lists of top gay Italy travel statns, thanks to s stat as the high-fashn pal of the world. Home to the largt – not to mentn the most glamoro – gay muny the untry, Gay Milan offers a vibrant space for LGBTQ divas and fashnistas om all rners of the angl the cy centre nod to some era of archecture; be art nouve around Corso Magenta, ratnalism Piazza San Babila or the futuristic skyle shaped by the lik of Zaha Hadid and César Pelli.

GAY MILAN

While much of the cy’s nightlife is gay-iendly, the clubs and bars around the Porta Venezia district are muny outposts that host nightly gay-themed events. To fd out about the next big gay event, pick up a ee py of Zerodue or Milano Pri magaz om stor and fés around town, readg more about the bt gay bars Milan has to offer wh our full Milan travel gui. Dpe the gay muny here beg somewhat spread out leavg the party scene muted, the Gay Amalfi Coast shows self small nods of acceptance towards same-sex upl and offers romantic vatns for all.

BT GAY CY ITALY? - ITALY FOM

“Thanks to s clive and unequaled wele, Puglia has tablished self over time as one of the bt Italian gay statns… Whether you're lookg for clothg optnal, whe sand, remote sereny, or packed wh eye-ndy, disver your paradise. Gay travel bloggers and fluencers are equally enthiastic about our regn.

“Puglia is also one of the most gay-iendly areas Southern Italy and wh is the town of Gallipoli. Gallipoli is another small charmg gay beach town, but unlike Sg or Fire Island, is not known for the party boy wild nightlife scene and more for s bety and e-as-you-are atmosphere”.

Two Bad Tourists list of The Top 15 Most Gay Friendly Ci to Vis on Your Next Gaytn (Puglia’s Gallipoli is raked no. The Nomadic Boys - perhaps one of the bt known gay travel fluencers - rate Puglia as Europe’s 5th top gay statn for LGBTQ+ travelers after Sg, Mykonos, Tel Aviv and Gran Canaria. “Oh Italia… where is virtually impossible to tell the gay men om the straight.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED WHEN A YOUNG GAY MAN MET STRANGERS ON AN ITALIAN TRA

Our gaydars have never been as nfed as when we first h the beach of Puglia.

Italian men (gay and straight) take good re of their bodi and have a lot of pri what they wear. Seventy-five years ago Fascist Italy, a group of gay men were labelled "generate", expelled om their hom and terned on an island.

GAY VENICE

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.

ITALY GAY TRAVEL

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. " So 1938 around 45 men believed to be homosexuals Catania were round up and nsigned to ternal exile.

ORTHODOX 'PRITS' STRIP OFF FOR GAY LENDAR THEY SAY WILL BRG 'HOPE, JOY AND FORT'

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.

GAY PALERMO

"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. "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.

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. 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.