Hi,

I am planning on being in Italy for the month of August this summer. I have already been to Rome and Florence, and so am interested in visiting some other cities.

Aside from those two, though, I am not sure which are gay friendly and have a vibrant gay scene, i.e., restaurants, bars, neighborhoods, etc. I was wondering if anyone on the board had any insights about that.

Primarily, I am thinking about Siena, Bologna, Venice and Palermo. Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Seth

As far as I know no Italian city has what I would call a vibrant gay scene... Probably Bologna can be an exception, though (even if having lived in Madrid for 7 years I would suggest you not to expect anything like the Madrid gay scene!).
Bologna is a great, young, international city and the food is fantastic, so you'll find plenty of good reasons to visit!

Thanks a lot! That's very helpful!

I would say most Italians are at the beach...
even non gay clubs etc.. close in the cities where it is so hot.... and open at the beach!

I would check out gay sites.. but would think rimini might have some sort of a gay scene..
I think all the Italians are in the islands!
Ibiza , spain maybe or Greece!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Seth Philadelphia:
Primarily, I am thinking about Siena, Bologna, Venice and Palermo. Any advice would be appreciated!

Although you are asking for specific places, I think it will be helpful if you start visiting the following WEB SITE . Many other links there too.

Seth, HERE is another very informative site.

My advice is to check out the seaside resorts like Rimini and Porto Ercole in Tuscany. The largest and hippest will be in Milan of course but it'll be just like any other big city.

There is also THIS web site for the gay scene in Versilia which is the Tuscan Coast beach resorts about an hour west of Florence. Have fun!

Even if I do not believe that you will find difficulties in ANY Italian place.
But yes, I believe that bigger towns - bet on Milan also- have what you call a gay scene.

I have several gay friends and they never had problems in Cortona

Same here, Acqui has a growing gay / artist / designer community but the gay people I know are totally integrated so I know of nothing which would equal a scene so to speak like you would find in Philly. I am sure in Genoa, Torino, and Milano there are gay oriented bars and cafe's. Everyone I know here is very gay friendly so I have never really thought about it.

Florence has the most famous gay scene historically but the versilia connection is great for the summer.

I'm glad to hear that Tuscans and Piemontesi are very gay friendly... Even if my experience is not negative here (I have some gay friends here that live peacefully and have many good Italian friends in the area) I wouldn't say that it's easy for gay people to get by or that Italy is a gay-friendly country.... I do not want to slip into politics so I'm stopping here.
I think that Italy is a generally welcoming country so, unless you meet someone really strongly homofobic, everybody will be kind, but I do notice a HUGE difference with Spain, for example.

quote:

Originally posted by Giulia da Urbino:
I'm glad to hear that Tuscans and Piemontesi are very gay friendly... Even if my experience is not negative here (I have some gay friends here that live peacefully and have many good Italian friends in the area) I wouldn't say that it's easy for gay people to get by or that Italy is a gay-friendly country.... I do not want to slip into politics so I'm stopping here.
I think that Italy is a generally welcoming country so, unless you meet someone really strongly homofobic, everybody will be kind, but I do notice a HUGE difference with Spain, for example.

Giulia, I ultimately came to think that people here do not care.

I mean, unless you are offensive, abusive etc -and I have no doubt that most gay aren't- I never saw any particular problem.

Maybe politically or religiously there are differences, but nothing that a tourist will meet for few weeks -if not days.

One of my gay friends say that he was so pleasantly surprized, because, being Italy a Catholic country, he would thought of it to be more homofobic, but it is really not.
He said that if he would have gone out in Houston dressed like an Italian fashion oriented man -not necessarily gay- like younger men were dressing here, police would have found him beaten to death the next morning!

Now, I have no doubt that this was a conversational exasggeration, but still -his words- Italy is more gay friendly than most small places in US.

I should also add that I am really talking about Acqui Terme here, which is a kind of creative town. I don't think you will find homosexuality very openly discussed in the Piemontese countryside, that is for sure. But my gay friends seem quite content here in this small city.