LGBTI Scene in Florence

Florentine LGBTI community: what to do, where to go. Culture, Entertainment, Music and Sports

How is the LGBTI scene in Florence? How is the LGBTI scene in Florence? In this article we want to guide you ito the cultural and social life of Florence LGBTI community. Florence is probably the gayest city in Italy! Art is everywhere. Fashion with Pitti events, the high couture stores in the city center, the Polimoda Fashion School near the Arno river and the textile tradition. The antiques and the historical markets, theaters, museums and of course the great art masterpieces of the past. Artistic expressions are always related to gay culture history. More than any other community gay people enhance and renew the forms of art communications.  

TO HAVE FUN

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The Flog night

The most famous Florence LGBTI night event of all. It exists since 1992. It’s only once a month from September to May. In recent years it has been re-named Necessariamente, because people feel the urgency, the necessity of this party.
The venue is always at Flog “Fondazione Lavoratori Officine Galileo”. This  is a real gathering of people from all cities of Tuscany coming to Florence because they know they will really enjoy as if they were going to visit some friends who organized the most massive of house parties. During the evening, there is always a different show: musical, plays, cabaret, live music or special moments of social propaganda on issues the community care about.
Then music stops at 4am. You’ll came back to reality with the Sirtaki, which is danced by everybody while the security bodyguards expect the last survivors of the evening to recompose and go back home…

Flog is located just outside the center; we suggest you to reach it in 10 minutes with a cab. If you have your own car you can park in the pine garden parking for just two euros. Do not arrive after 11 p.m. because you will not find easily parking, (not even inside). However, here’s the solution: come for dinner. Il Giardino del Poggetto, the pizzeria in front of the Flog has become a real tradition of the community: first pizza, then fun and dance.

Regrettably, both Flog and the pizzeria have shut their doors after the pandemic, living an unbridgeable gap in the city and breaking all our hearts.

Piccolo Cafè

It’s the historic gay bar in the center of Florence, near Piazza Santa Croce. This year Piccolo celebrates its 21st birthday and changes its interiors every 6 months offering always new fantastic looks. On Thursday evening the most important DJs of the Florentine nightlife play here to entertain tourists and citizens. Furthermore, on Fridays and Saturdays there are so many people that you can just take your drink inside and drink it outside in the crowd, that street we can be considered the small “Florentine gay street”.

GULP

Gulp is the newest and coolest party of the city. Five brilliant Florentine girls, Margherita, Andrea, Costanza, Sofia and Vezia created this special night, the real rising of gay & friends parties in town. DJ sets, live music, colors, one of the best vocalist of Italy: Jenny Jackson.

Interno 3

3It’s a new bar restaurant in Calenzano. Patrizia with its karaoke night and its PATlive music festival delights all those w ho participate during the happy hour, every Friday and Sunday. You can find here the most disparate audience:  a place where you talk with LGBTI families of Florence and always have fun. Cocktails, DJ nights and tango dance events.

LGBTI ASSOCIATIONS OF FLORENCE

Azione Gay e Lesbica

Located in Via Pisana 32, Azione exists since 1989 and organizes the Flog night Necessariamente. The association has always answered about gay events of Florence to the youngest people. They also organize Ciackline, a retrospective of gay-themed movies accompanied with debates, every week. Azione hosts book presentation events and debates. All the guys who work here are volunteers. They have also a stocked library of gay-themed books that you can always consult.

GGG Gruppo Giovani GLBTI

A group of young lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (and others) of Florence. They meet every week and the themes of each meeting are always different: self-training, confrontation, self- awareness and knowledge. To participate you can write to gruppo.giovani.glbti@gmail.com or consult their Facebook page.

IREOS

Ireos address is Via dei Serragli 3, just near the Arno river. You can always find a counseling of psychologists to talk about sex problems and you can do here, for free, HIV tests (just write to prevenzione@ireos.org). The test is anonymous and accompanied with an interview that will give information on risk behavior, ways of transmission, treatments. By the way, datas collected during the last years show that about half of the people doing the HIV test at Ireos are heterosexual. IREOS also organizes training courses on discrimination, meetings and educational projects in the schools of Florence. The goal is to encourage debate and discussions on issues like homophobia, transphobia, gender stereotypes, human rights and other related issues.
Also held presentations of books, meetings with authors, happy hours and parties. But the most important event organized by Ireos is the Florence Queer festival.

CULTURE

Florence Queer Festival

It’s one of the most important Italian exhibitions dedicated to queer culture. Arrived at its thirteenth edition, the festival takes place every November during the 50 Days of Cinema in Florence at the Odeon Cinema, the most beautiful and old theatre in Florence. Odeon is situated in the centre of the city, next Repubblica Square. It proposes movies in their original versions with Italian subtitles. The festival not only presents retrospective of important movies from all over the world, but also photo exhibitions, video art, theater, music, books presentations, debates and parties.

SPORT

Do you really think that gay guys and sport are two separate worlds? You’re wrong.
In Florence we have gay football teams and sport fans getting together organizing tournaments to promote not only love for sport but integration without prejudice. Do you like football? There’s Revolution Soccer Team. With great irony these guys propose the Finocchiona Cup (finocchiona is the typical Tuscan salami with fennel but also a term used to refer to a gay person in the Florentine slang). Moreover, a football tournament called MSP sees the girls of the team sponsored by GULP.
You can go to cheer the girls and be updated about matches visiting the official Facebook page of Gulp. Schermata 2016-02-28 alle 14.14.27

 

 

Or what about a hike? In Florence Altri Passi organizes informal tours to guide people in the fantastic world of trekking. The target is always meeting new people during wonderful trips that alternate historical-artistic interest, landscapes and nature.

Visit Florence and have fun. Our city is not “just art”.
If you are part of the LGBTI community or friends, here you will never get bored!

 

by Stefano Chianucci