GROUNDBREAKING LGBTQ+ TOUR OPERATOR, ‘QUIIKY’, ANNOUNCES NEW ITALIAN TOUR BASED ON OSCAR-WINNING FILM, ‘CALL ME BY YOUR NAME’ – Eight-Night Tour Visits Iconic Italian Settings of Coming-of-Age Drama That Include Milan, Crema, Garda Lake, Verona, Venice, and Bergamo
– San Francisco, Calif. (June XX, 2018) – With the continuing surge in popularity of LGBTQ travel, Quiiky Tours, the first Italian tour operator specializing in gay and lesbian-themed tours, has announced a new guided tour based on the Academy Award-winning film, “Call me by Your Name.” The eight-night tour visits many of the Italian settings featured in the coming-of-age drama that include Milan, Crema, Garda Lake, Verona, Venice, and Bergamo. Prices start at $2,500 per person, based on double occupancy, and include accommodations, breakfast daily, car rental for the driving portion of the itinerary, and guided tours of Milan, Crema, Verona and Venice. High speed rail travel can be substituted for the driving portion. Prices are based on currency exchange rates and subject to change.
The LGBTQ community continues to find increasing acceptance in Italy, where gay and lesbian rights have advanced significantly since the legal recognition of same-sex unions in 2016. Quiiky, a subsidiary of travel and hospitality leader Sonders&Beach, has emerged as one of Italy’s most progressive tour operators with its unique offering of exclusive, LGBTQ-themed tours that provides guests with gay-friendly accommodations and English-speaking guides. The tours explore the homosexual culture and the often-hidden history of many of Italy’s most iconic destinations and attractions. Unique to Quiiky, their tours also provide opportunities for guests to meet and socialize with the local LGBTQ communities.
A Picture-Perfect Tour
Film throughout Italy, “Call me by Your Name” tells the passionate love story between an Italian-American young man, Elio, and a young American researcher, Oliver. In addition to visiting many of the movie settings, the tour takes guests on walking excursions to explore the fascinating, true stories behind such historical figures as Leonardo da Vinci and author Thomas Mann, and the architectural masterpieces to be found in cities like Milan, “the fashion capital of the world.”
Itinerary highlights include a stay at the gay-friendly hotel Aqualux in Bardolino, on Lake Garda. Guests can enjoy the hotel Spa and participate in a unique wine tasting at the Amarone wine cellars. In Crema, a major movie setting, guests visit some of the crucial movie scenes, such as Duomo Square, where the protagonists, Elio and Oliver, sit at a bar table.
Guests can sit at the same table to make the scene come alive. The itinerary also includes a bicycle tour through the provinces of Crema and Lodi, as well as a cooking course on the preparation of Tortelli Cremaschi, a traditional pasta dish. In Verona, guests will also have the option to attend such events as the Arena Opera Festival or Teatro Filarmonico.
The tour includes a visit to the Catullus Caves and ends in Bergamo, where the main movie characters dance to the ‘80’s pop hit, “Love my Way” by the Psychedelic Furs.
‘’Call me by Your Name’ has earned a place among the many literary and cinematic masterpieces that celebrate the gay lifestyle” said Alessio Virgili, CEO at Sonders&Beach, parent company of Quiiky Tours. “Our tour offers a unique opportunity for fans to recreate some of the most poignant and passionate scenes from the movie, in the exact location where they were filmed.”
Along with Sonders&Beach, Quiiky is partnering with Milan, AITGL, the Italian Tourism Board, and the U.S. General Consulate of Milan to support Milan’s IGLTA Global Convention on LGBTQ Tourism in 2020.
About Quiiky Tours
QUIIKY is a subsidiary of Sonders&Beach, a global network of brands in the travel and hospitality industry with offices in the U.S. and Italy and more than 100 employees worldwide. The first Italian tour operator specializing in gay and lesbian tourism, Quiiky provides comprehensive, 24-hour service and superior customer support by drawing upon their extensive network of gay-friendly hotels, vendors, knowledgeable tour guides, and relationships with many of the local LGBTQ communities. This ensures that all of Quiiky guests experience a vacation in an environment that fully respects diversity and with a company that fully understands their needs and concerns. Quiiky Tours also specializes in LGBTQ honeymoons, as well as short, gay-friendly tours that tell the “untold history” of cities like Rome, Florence and Naples, and historical figures like Leonardo da Vinci and Italian general Giuseppe Garibaldi. Quiiky is a member of AITGL, IGLTA, Visit USA Association, and ECPAT. Sounders&Beach is the first Italian tourism company to support and adopt the United Nations’ LGBTI Standards of Conduct for business. For more information, call 1-(415) 757-3498 or visit https://www.quiiky.com/en/ or https://www.untoldhistorytour.com/.
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