If you’re in New York, in Union Square, would you want to know that the famous photos of Oscar Wilde in knee breeches were taken there? The building is still there, though the façade has been altered. Would you want to know that Andy Warhol’s Factory was here for most of its existence? That building is still here too.
While you’re standing in line outside the Louvre, would you want to know that the Palais Royal, across the street, belonged to Louis XIV’s gay (and/or gender-queer) brother? When you visit the Galleria Borghese in Rome, would you want to know that Cardinal Borghese—who built it and commissioned the famous Berninis—had a male lover, whom his uncle the Pope made a Cardinal after failing to make them break up? And what about the Caravaggios, which Borghese extorted from an artist he imprisoned? Would you want to hear about their gay side?
Well, if you would like to know this kind of thing, you already know that if you go to any of these places, nobody is going to tell you. If you’re lucky, they will ignore that part of the story. If you’re unlucky, they’ll deny it exists.
And that’s exactly why I founded Oscar Wilde Tours—to reveal the hidden LGBTQ+ stories of the world’s great cities and artworks.
In our reviews, people mention a lot of reasons Oscar Wilde Tours is unique. They talk about me, of course, since it’s my brainchild, and (at least for now) I still lead all of our tours. I suppose I have a slightly unusual background: I had a full academic career, with professorships and publications—but I also spent years in the travel industry.
When I was 17, I had a job collecting money for a political organization, earning minimum wage—$2.75 an hour. But it was the U.S. Bicentennial, and Boston was full of tourists. One of the men dispatching tour buses noticed me and called me over: “Hey kid, you can hustle. You wanna be a tour guide?”
He offered me $5 an hour, so of course I said yes. Then he found out I spoke French, German, and Italian. At that point, foreign tourists were just starting to arrive in Boston, so suddenly I was earning $10 an hour. I was probably one of the best-paid teenagers in the Northeast—at least among the legal ones.
I ended up giving tours all over the U.S. and Canada, working summers through college and grad school. So I learned how to design and lead a tour in my sleep—which isn’t something many people with a PhD can say.
There are other things that make Oscar Wilde Tours different too, some simply because we’re small. We only run four or five tours a year, so every detail matters—especially the food. Each meal is carefully chosen, featuring local specialties, and honestly, we could probably market them as gourmet tours.
But there are also things we can’t quite explain—like the people. Our groups are consistently wonderful. Many guests come back again and again—some have joined us eight or nine times—and there’s always this warm, welcoming atmosphere. I still remember our first tour, coming downstairs in a hotel in Sorrento and seeing everyone already gathered together in the bar. It’s been like that ever since.
Our tours are great for singles—no one is ever left out. Most of our guests are gay men, but lesbians are immediately part of the family too. And maybe most importantly, our groups genuinely look out for each other, making the tours welcoming even for those with mobility or hearing challenges.
But the real difference is the content.
There are other LGBTQ+ tour companies, of course. But Oscar Wilde Tours doesn’t just offer tours *for* LGBTQ+ travelers—we design tours *around* LGBTQ+ history, art, and culture. As one guest put it: other companies offer LGBTQ+ tours; we celebrate LGBTQ+ stories.
Of course, we still take you to the famous places. But we tell you what no one else will. In India or Japan, we include everything—the Taj Mahal, tea ceremonies, dinners with geishas—but we also tell you the stories behind them. Did you know the earliest geishas were male?
And we go further. We take you to places most tours would never consider—like the penis temple in Nagoya, or Emperor Hadrian’s villa outside Rome, where archaeologists have identified the site of the temple dedicated to Antinous, his beloved male companion, whom he deified after his death.
Anyway, this is getting long, but I wanted to answer some of your questions.
If you’re interested, take a look at this fall’s tours. Our spring tours—Sicily and England—are already sold out. This fall, we have *Call Me By Your Name*, including a full day in the towns where the film was shot—the café where Elio and Oliver flirted, the pond where they first kissed—and *Gay Italy*, which follows right after, so many guests do both.
Next spring, we’re heading back to India, and for the first time, Nepal.
On every tour, we show you LGBTQ+ history and culture that no one else will. In fact, most people don’t even know it—or don’t care to.
We’re always updating our itineraries, adding new experiences, and timing our trips around incredible cultural events—like attending *La Traviata* at La Scala in Milan. In fact, we plan our entire schedule around moments like that.
Last year, we skipped Italy to avoid the 30+ million pilgrims visiting Rome for the Papal Jubilee. This year, we’re going back—because many of the city’s marble monuments were just cleaned, making it one of the best times to see them before pollution begins to dull them again.
