The gay history of Pompeii

Visiting the city of Pompeii, you may feel like you are gone back in time. Only within 30 minutes from Naples, the destination is famous Mt. Vesuvius volcano, which erupted in the year 79 A.D. The moment marks a natural disaster which wiped out the whole city of Pompeii and buried everything in a huge layer of ash. The mud preserved it all, sealing everything. In 1738 King Charles of Bourbon ordered the start of the excavations of the archeological wonder and now you can walk through it!

If you visit the archeological place with our gay-friendly guide, you learn several things about LGBTQ+ life in ancient Roman civilization, led by a few Untold Histories you probably haven’t heard before.

The decorations, frescos, graffiti, sculptures, so artful preserved for centuries, will unveil how the ancient times were open-minded about sexual orientation. These visual scenes illustrate that sensuality was considered a gift from the gods. Visit houses, streets and thermal baths adorned with artwork depicting sex scenes and homosexual relationships.In the suburban thermal baths watch sixteen scenes of gay sex between two men, two women and a threesome, as Catullus wrote in the Carmen 56...