My partner and I plan on traveling to Italy from the northern part down to Rome in late May of 2008. Any tips on hostels or places to stay? Looking for some relatively cheap places. We are both 26.
We don't have a schedule planned out yet. Would love to visit Lake Como and Tuscany as well as spend some time on the coast.
Check out www.purpleroofs.com for gay friendly places, although 99% of the hotel could care less what you're doing behind your hotel room door.
Duane,
My partner and I travel to Italy every year and have never sought out a gay-friendly place to stay. I agree with Sam, the hotels are not interested in what is happening behind your closed door.
The lake region and Tuscany are great places to visit. Train travel is inexpensive and easy.
My partner and I encountered only a little homophobia when we were in Italy in 2003. (One waiter in Vernazza shunned our table after he asked us why we didn't have any women with us and we told him that we had each other.) Italians won't care what you do behind closed doors as long as it's behind closed doors, but Italy is still heavily influenced culturally by the Catholic Church. In other words, public displays of romantic affection between two men will be extremely looked down upon almost everywhere in Italy. Generally the more northern and the larger the city, the more progressive it will be.
Also, sometimes a "double" means two twin beds in the bedroom. They might ask you if you want the beds pushed together (called "matrimoniale"). We didn't get a blink when we said "matrimoniale" for our rooms.
And watch out for places that seem to target only gay men as their clientele. You may end up in a more "partying" oriented place than you would like.
