Gay author writer Truman Capote said it best: “Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.”

The “floating city” Venice  is built on one hundred and seventeen small islands, and holds one hundred and fifty canals, connected by an amazing four hundred and nine bridges, of which only three cross the main canal.

While most tour guides don’t recommend getting lost in the majority of cities during your Venice vacation, Venice is the place to get hopelessly lost for a day. Through the mysterious alleyways leading off from the city, endless mazes of backstreets and deserted squares, on your Venice trip, you’ll find that this city is a perfect place to walk for hours on end, pretending to know where you are.

 

While it’s not a very gay city, it very beautiful. But beuaty aint cheap honey!  Venice is one of the world’s most enchanting  and expensive cities. You do pay a price, literally and figuratively, for all this beauty. Everyone leaves complaining about the outrageous prices, which can be double what they are elsewhere in the country.

When we last checked there was one gay bar town that had closed! So not much in the way gay nightlife. Shopping is very expensive as are rooms and loadging.

“A Carnevale Ogni Scherzo Vale.” It means: anything goes at carnivale. Before Lent, before Ash Wednesday, before Easter, there is Mardi Gras – and nowhere is the party more boisterous than Carnevale in Venice. There are lavish parades, luxuriant masquerade balls, and spontaneous parties in the streets as the celebration lasts for almost two weeks. Costumes and masks abound, both ornate and simple. The point is not always the gaudiness of the fabric or the construction of the Carnevale masks, but the anonymity they provide the bearer with. With your mask on, you are pardoned your sins. With the mask on, anything goes.

Carnevale is a meeting point for gay people, but apart from that, although it’s a marvellous city, if you’re looking for gay-specific action,  Venice has not much to offer to the GLBT community, that’s why most gay people go to Padua (Padova), which is a short hop from Venice, for a drink in the evening or looking for some relaxation in a sauna.

 

Tuscany is trying to woo the gay travel dollar there. For the second year in a row, the mayor of Viareggio, in the Tuscan region of Italy, has extended an invitation for gay and lesbian travelers to visit the towns of Viareggio and Torre del Lago. This area is where the famous musician Giacoma Puccini was born.

Gay life is getting hot and popular in Tuscany – openly gay and lesbian pubs, restaurants, and shops; open and proud gay men and lesbians; rainbow flags; and lots of travelers coming from all over Italy and other countries. That’s a far cry from the Italy most travelers think of – the Vatican, the Fall of Rome artifacts, the Pope, and girls in black dresses. Some even say the area is on the way to becoming the fad of Italy.

Gay Friendly Italy        Pink Agenda Italy