Tours Milano

Florence gay tour Renaissance History! Visit two splendid museums in Florence, where you discover the whole history of Florentine Renaissance art, from Donatello to Cellini – as well as the dense gay history of Renaissance Florence.
Start in the morning at the Bargello, and enjoy several key male nude sculptures from the Renaissance, including Donatello’s David – the first freestanding male nude after Greek-Roman times; plunge into the Accademia Gallery, and meet some of the most famous painters of Renaissance: from Cimabue to Giotto, to Botticelli, the painter of the ‘Primavera’ (‘Springtime’). The masterwork here is the ‘David’ by Michelangelo: his naked beauty is breathtaking. His face seems concentrated on the enemy and his muscles are ready to sprint.
Turn to the Medici neighborhood, where we will discuss the family’s amazing record as ‘gayfriendly’ art patrons while visiting their original palace and their funerary chapel, where Michelangelo carved some of his greatest sculptures.

Few cities like Venice have fascinated the late homosexual culture. Just think of ‘Death in Venice’ by Thomas Mann, Frederik Rolfe’s life , or consider the surreal atmosphere of the Venetian Carnival which also inspired the erotic production of Jean-Daniel Cadinot …
But what about the homosexual life in previous centuries, at the time of the Serenissima Republic? Which history is hidden under the sodomy and the sexual customs of Baroque and Renaissance ?
The homosexual environment during the Renaissance, although pursued with cruel laws, was an integral part of the city and indeed extended to the state, in a political but also cultural way.
Rolandina (14th century), the first known transgender of the modern era: meet gay love stories between bandits, transvestism in the aristocratic society … but discover old banned gay-themed books printed in Venice and survived to this day.
Was Giacomo Casanova , the most famous ‘womanizer’ of the 18th century, attracted only by women?…. Or also by young men?
Which scandals animated the rich life of Venice? The notorious Giulio da Canal openly expressed his love for a young cross-dresser. The two lived together and they had to leave the town just in time before being convicted to jail.
Discover the ‘ blue lights’ quarters in Venice, in a gay-escorted-three-hour walking tour , from Rialto Bridge to San Marco Square , passing by the ‘Campo of Santa Maria Formosa’.
Here you will also visit an impressive mansion of Venice: Palazzo Grimani , which was the sophisticated residence of the most important antiquities collectors of the Renaissance.
Mythological themes, often related to homosexuality, still live in the frescoed ceilings. Prepare to be amazed inside of the incomparable “tribuna”, the most precious room of the palazzo. As you can guess, it’s no coincidence if this place, literally filled with ancient statues, is dominated by the most famous gay love of Olympus: Jupiter and Ganymede.
Our tour will end right in the most symbolic place of the Venetian political power: Piazza San Marco , where this sophisticated culture, steeped in ancient left hidden symbols, but clearly visible to those who can read them. And right here, sitting in front of the superb Doge’s Palace, we will end with a glass of prosecco or the most famous Venetian cocktail: spritz.

This is a day tour dedicated to discover Palermo: walking the town with your guide, you learn about the sense of this place, which is still plunged into the past but also looking to the future. Palermo is a great picture of beauty and of flavors, a unique experience of colors, which really give the sense of the Mediterranean.

For this, a sail boat tour along the coast will enrich your excursion and invite to dive into the crystalline Sicilian waters, while enjoying some tasty snacks and appetizers with local wine. Enjoy the view of Palermo and Villa Igiea from the sea, The Florio Tuna-Fishery and Mount Pellegrino. You will stop in front of one of the most beautiful beaches in Souther Italy: Mondello from where you will also widen your horizon to the Gulf and the mountains.

Discover the movie location of Call me by your name with this gay tour dedicated to romance, to lovers, who want to plunge into a touching love story between two guys whose lives will be deeply transformed by their relationship.

In 1875, Oscar Wilde is in Italy. Visiting Italy, for an Englishman of the Victorian era, meant not only discovering culture and beauty during a traditional Grand Tour: that time Italy had indeed a reputation as a tolerant country in sexual matters, not a mystery that many homosexuals was founding in cities like Venice refuge and freedom.


The emotional impact Venice played on him was beyond expectations and probably mediated by the book “The Stones of Venice” by professor and friend John Ruskin that Wilde met in Oxford in those years. Venice appeared to Wilde as a long parade of churches and palaces, white and golden domes, high belltowers. It seems there is no open space in Venice, but only in San Marco Square. He also points out that Venice is a perfect setting for romance, because the scenario is always somehow romantic.


Wilde was captured by the beauty of St. Mark Basilica and by Rialto Bridge. Even if his letters about Venice do not specify all the places he used to visit…nevertheless, we may have some clues.


A book, edited in 2022 and written by Marie Gervais-Vidricaire ‘Silence sur Venise’ features a fictional encounter of a young Marcel Proust with the artist Mariano Fortuny and Oscar Wilde. The book imagines a talk about all arts amongst three great artists and includes also Stefan Zweig, expressing his wish to become a writer, like Oscar Wilde.


Mariano Fortuny, painter, stylist and eclectic artist restored Pesaro Palace, as the greatest expression of European Decadentism and made it his house-atelier. The influence of Oscar Wilde’s poetry and themes was extremely strong on the Fortuny era, and the palace itself reflects all this fascination. Not only, Wilde and Fortuny share much of the same cultural background, as the great love for the ancient Greek culture, and certainly very similar artistic and aesthetic tastes. So much so we can truly assume that if Oscar Wilde himself had decorated the palace it would not look much different! An example is also his famous shawl ‘Knossos’, which recalls all the seduction of Wilde’s ‘Salomè’ and which definitely influenced the icon of the ‘Femme Fatale’ during the ‘Belle Epoque’.