Long shot I know but any tips / suggestions re ITALY. specifically Venice, Pisa, Florence & Rome ??

[Nirish guy]

As the title says long shot I know as I'm heading off in the morning for 10 days or so - but will ask anyway - any one have any tips / suggestions / do's font's / must see ( "normal" tourist places / plus of course any gay bars or clubs etc in ITALY, specifically I'm heading to Venice, Pisa, Florence & Rome ??

Although from my last trip to Italy getting a gay guy to as much as LOOK at you in a gay bar, never mind god forbid ever SPEAK to you, even just for an ordinary hello and every day chat is almost impossible I found - thankfully I know from reading others experiences online that it's not just me who felt that when there.

I'm going with my BF so don't really give a shit about hook ups etc in this case ( Italian men love themselves WAY too much already without me having to bother I found) - so if anyone has any other tips or bars worth calling into to see ( as from looking online there's a severe lack of gay anything in Italy perhaps) - so gay or straight and normal everyday tourist stuff is just fine this trip. I'm already ticking off the usual suspects of the pic of us holding up the leaning tower of Pisa ( bloody shoddy workmanship if you ask me in the first place - bet you it was a rushed job on a friday !) through to the Colosseum, Vatican and Sistine Chapel etc ( which I'm dreading as it's just a money trap and they wheel you through like sardines apparently !)

But any other tips or suggestions always greatly received.

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[RonanTheBarbarian]

Well, I don't have much advice, but I can tell you that the Vatican is a must for the gay traveller!

Not sure what you mean about having heard that they hustle you through the Sistine Chapel - it is at the end of the route through the Vatican Museum, so unless you are part of a guided tour you can pretty much take your own pace there, from what I can remember.
I don't recall there being a time limit on how much time you can spend in the Sistine Chapel, although by the time you got there it will be fairly crowded (even if you do the Museum early in the morning) and you will be tired. The management of the Museum might have initiated a time limit on how long you can stay in the Sistine Chapel since I was there, though (about ten years ago).

You can actually do a “gay-themed” tour of the Vatican Museums nowadays I believe. All run by private tour guides and entirely unaffiliated with the management, of course.

If you are doing the Vatican Museum you must not miss at the very least the famous statues of gay interest in it – amongst which there is of course the statue of the Apollo Belvedere (aka the "Twink"), the statue of Laocoon (aka the "Hunk"), and that the statue of Antinous (aka the "Boyfriend"), the beloved of the Emperor Hadrian

[Moses]

Rome. There are row of gay and gayfriendly bars on the Via di S.Giovanni right in front of Colliseum. I had few hookups there. Really crowded after sunset. Google maps 41.890045, 12.494455

[Nirish guy]

Thank you guys, I'll take the above under consideration ( and look out for those statues ! :-) and the getting herded through the Sistine etc Im taking directly from ( many MANY) recent negative reviews on trip advisor just, just I guess I'll find out for myself shortly re that.

Just left Lake Garda ( Sirimone) today and then Venice tonight ( and tomorrow) and so far loving it all :/)

[paperboy]

bill.jpg
Take plenty of money, thats all iam saying lol

[Nirish guy]

Yes you're bang on the PB, we've already had a few of those types of bills where I've raised my eyes and asked HOW much - and for THAT !? But the Pound / Euro rate isn't doing us any favours either in that regard it has to be said.

Saying that we're enjoying ourselves and enjoying Italy so far so what the he'll eh, ya can't take it with you and all that.

[frequent]

bill.jpg
Take plenty of money, thats all iam saying lol

Especially if you're going to order 12 Fiorentina (almost half the bill)

[Nirish guy]

Well I just completed my day at the Vatican and thank you Roman, I ticked off all three of the guys you listed ( as well as a hundred others) Pity mind you that the repressed fuckers are so fucked up they thought it a sound idea to either cover all and any cocks and balls with a fig leaf or more commonly just cut the poor guys dick and balls off totally - all except the statues of children, where strangely they seem to have decided for them to remain intact and on full view. Funny that eh!

Re the Sistine chapel and "herding" both things were right in that there were 4 guards herding you in the door and down onto the main floor of the chapel. But once there you were fairly much left alone for I'm guessing as long as you wanted, but I can see how if busier those guards were to fan out to keep the crowds ( of which there were plenty today) moving on through.

I was also surprised that I was able to buy both beers and cocktails WITHIN the Vatican itself at their outdoor cafe. Between their OFFICIAL "skip the queue" ticket touts and a hundred other money making tickets - rent an audio set - ohhh and you want an earpiece to hear that, yeah that's extra sir" Walt Disney could for sure learn a few new tricks from this crowd !

[RonanTheBarbarian]

"Completed my day at the Vatican and thank you Ronan, I ticked off all three of the guys you listed"....

Glad you were able to find them NIrish!


..."so fucked up they thought it a sound idea to either cover all and any cocks and balls with a fig leaf or more commonly just cut the poor guys dick and balls off totally"...

I will give you the criticism for covering them up with the fig leaves, but I don't think you can blame the cultured Renaissance Cardinals who first created the collections for the breaking off the meat and two veg - it was a fashion during some of the more lunatic phases of Christianity in the Dark Ages,about a millennium earlier - I don't think that was done to any statue after any of the eminent prelates acquired them - open to correction that though.


"I was also surprised that I was able to buy both beers and cocktails WITHIN the Vatican itself at their outdoor cafe"...

Not sure why you were surprised by that...it aint run by the Free Presbyterians you know!

Southern Mediterranean Catholics have a slightly less negative view of alcohol, you will find.

I know a guy who studied in a seminary in Rome and he said that a bottle of wine was placed on the tables in the refectory at lunchtime. He said that was equivalent to putting a bottle of water on the tables as far as the Italian clerics who ran the places were concerned...

[Nirish guy]

I'll bow to your knowledge there re the removal of peni ( the plural of penis perhaps :-) from the studies and I hope you're right as that would at least give some excuse to their morbid fascination with "covering up / cutting off" everywhere. Still you'd think the new big boss would say "ok fuck it, off with their fig leaves and let's display the art as it was meant to be seen" - but I guess then that would be a case of damned if he did and damned if he didn't.

And re the wine etc - wine perhaps I would have understood what with their main man apparently being fond of a wee swally himself when attending weddings at least and sorting out the wine for them after realising somewhat had forgotten to bring the carry out. But a full COCKTAIL list was I thought a bit much - but hey, I'm all for that idea so they got a bonus point from me re that one.

Re the few gays that I've visited ( with my bf :-( for a few nights now, certainly lots of great looking guys about ( at the weekends) but not a lot of open cruising going on it seems and all more people out with friends.

But my god Italian bar staff are rude fuckers, it's either a case of ignoring you until they're good a ready to bother serving you or as in our case each evening almost forcing you out their door when they decide to close and talking to you like you're some piece of shit on their shoe as they wave you and everyone else as they do so.

BUT as I discovered ( and suspected ) all along all their loud, aggressive sounding rhetoric and hand movements are all just a front from them actually being spineless pricks who have no balls when it comes to backing up their rudeness. I stood up and answered back ( in no uncertain terms) to several guys who tried the whole be as rude as fuck thing to us thing and each and every one of them wussed out and scurried away. And I was told by an expat living here who witnessed one of the men moments occurring that this is their usual M.O. - still, many are cute none the less ( oh and place is coming down with cute Asians too in case anyone is thinking of visiting !)