• Home
  • Travel Guides
  • Lifestyle
  • Queer News
  • Q Channel
  • Italy Gay Travel
  • English
Menu
  • Home
  • Travel Guides
  • Lifestyle
  • Queer News
  • Q Channel
  • Italy Gay Travel
  • English
Facebook Instagram Youtube Twitter
  • About us
  • LGBTQ Italy Guide
  • Plan your Trip
  • Contact us
  • About us
  • LGBTQ Italy Guide
  • Plan your Trip
  • Contact us
Search
Close

The Reason We Started an LGBTQ Travel Agency in Italy

Quiiky Founders Alessio Virgili and Andrea Cosimi on Love, Adventure, and Italy

Jamie T. by Jamie T.
8 March 2022
Reading Time: 4 mins read

Meet Alessio Virgili and Andrea Cosimi, partners in love and entrepreneurship who met at the ripe age of 18 and 21 respectively. They are the founders of Sonders&Beach, the parent company of Quiiky, an LGBTQ travel agency in Italy, which specializes in providing unique experiences to queer travelers across the globe who want to visit Italy.

When Virgili and Cosimi founded Quiiky, the concept of an LGBTQ travel agency didn’t exist. Early on in their relationship, the pair were planning a vacation. They were concerned about their safety and acceptance at their destination traveling as a gay couple. At the time, there were no openly LGBTQ travel agency to be found, and it was difficult to find information about LGBTQ tourism. As natural entrepreneurs, the pair decided that this market vacuum needed to be filled.

Alessio & Andrea with John Tanzella, IGLTA President

LGBTQ Travel Agency Interview: Quiiky Founders Alessio Virgili and Andrea Cosimi

We sat down with the partners to get a deeper look at why they decided to start an LGBTQ travel agency in Italy. Here’s edited excerpts from the conversation.

The Beginning

QMagazine: Can you describe in your own words why it is important to show the world that Italy is a welcoming place for LGBTQ+ travelers? 

Alessio Virgili: Italy has always been a welcoming country: because of its position in the Mediterranean, its mild climate and natural biodiversity, it has always welcomed people from the rest of Europe and from all over the world. Then its commercial vocation along centuries, the strong Greek cultural influences – by which any guest is a gods’ gift – have deeply influenced the Italian attitude to welcoming.

QMagazine: Can you tell me a little bit about your personal journey and the relationship between the two of you before starting your LGBTQ Travel Agency? How did you find each other and decide to go into business together? 

Alessio Virgili: Andrea and I have been together for 19 years, now. We met when I was 18 and he was 21, in a mainstream bar in Rome. Both of us were there with their friends who were not acquainted with our sexual orientations. None of us had a love story before. We immediately got along well, together and after just one year we were living and working together.

I was still at school, but with my father’s signature, I was able to fund my first business: a cooperative of lifeguards, for the Latium beaches. In the meantime, Andrea had to leave for the mandatory service in the Navy Corps…but, my mother employed him in the cooperative, so that he did not leave.

Our ‘business journey’ together started.

Building An LGBTQ Travel Agency in Italy

QMagazine: How did the two of you decide to start the organization Sonders&Beach? 

Alessio Virgili: After one year of work in Rome, dealing with heavy bureaucracy and competitors’ threats, we decided to leave for Milan, for a new business adventure. We were very young but, luckily, we found support in institutions, banks and customers. 

When we were in Milan, we decided to shift our business from lifeguards to restaurants and hotels. We succeeded to get our first customer, a restaurant owner on the Milanese Navigli. He trusted those two young chaps and put a cheque in their hands. Sonders&Beach was born.

QMagazine: For those who aren’t familiar with Quiiky, can you describe what it is and why you decided to start the company?  

Andrea Cosimi: Perhaps it’s interesting to write about the origin of Quiiky LGBTQ Travel Agency. When we were younger, we decided to organize a vacation together and were looking for destinations and hotels friendly enough to accept the way we are and our love story. It was extremely difficult to find information on line or at travel agencies’…we understood that this market vacuum needed to be filled up. Quiiky LGBTQ Travel Agency was founded.

A Beacon of LGBTQ Travel for Italy

QMagazine: What is one thing you want the world to know about Italy? 

Alessio Virgili: This is a very important message to us: we want to say that homosexuality is not immoral or an expression of modern life perversion, as many believe. We claim that homosexuality has to do only with love, with humanity, that it has always existed, since the man’s origins!

Andrea Cosimi: Our ‘Untold History Tours’ are exactly the proof of this: you discover how many artists expressed their same-sex love by creating masterpieces, how their feelings influenced their harassed lives. LGBTQ+ Italian history is unique, not to be found elsewhere! Milan, Rome, Florence, Naples, Venice, Taormine, Turin….you discover the beauty of homosexual artists and culture in these towns and many others. Not by chance that an Oscar-winning movie such ‘Call Me by Your Name’ (we have a dedicated tour on it!) was shot in Italy.

An Invitation to You!

Now that you know the incredible story of Quiiky’s founders and their mission to provide LGBTQ+ travelers with safe, tailored, incredible experiences in Italy, why not plan a trip of your own? Browse some amazing multi-day tour options available on Quiiky.com/EN, see Untold History tours you can book in many cities throughout Italy, or book a tailor-made tour crafted just for your taste.

Visit Quiiky.com/EN to book your trip today! 

Share127Tweet80

Related Posts

Gay Couple in Water
Queer News

New Year, New Quiiky LGBTQ+ Travel Experiences in Italy

20 January 2023

LGBTQ+ travel just got a whole lot more exciting! Quiiky Travel has designed a different kind of tour experience for LGBTQ+ travelers and their allies, now offering a rainbow-worthy spectrum of LGBTQ+ travel experiences in Italy, to discover beautiful landscapes...

Santa Marinella Grottaferrata 2022
Queer News

LGBTQ+ Italy Shines in the Latest Issue of QMagazine

6 December 2022

November 2022 has been a milestone for LGBTQ+ Italy on a global scale. Milan hosted an international convention on LGBTQ+ tourism called IGLTA, at which thousands of professionals from the travel and hospitality industry got to experience what makes...

Gay man with flag
Travel Guides

Celebrate Gay Pride In Italy with These LGBTQ+ Festivals & Events

7 June 2022

Italy is home to a thriving LGBTQ+ community whose history stretches back for centuries. From the ancient Greek and Roman soldiers to the merchants of Venice, the queer beaches of Sicily, to modern day Rome, there's so much LGBTQ+...

Milan Rainbow
Queer News

Gay Milan: Everything You Need To Know Ahead of the 2022 IGLTA Convention

31 March 2022

Gay Milan is preparing to welcome the 38th IGLTA Convention on LGBTQ+ tourism for the first time in Italy from October 26 to 28, 2022 at UNAHOTELS Expo Fiera. Tour operators from all over the world will arrive to...

About Quiiky Magazine

Quiiky Magazine

Quiiky Magazine

Italian LGBTQ+ Travel & Lifestyle Portal

Quiiky Magazine is the premier Italian lifestyle and travel portal dedicated to LGBTQ+ travelers, featuring articles on Italian destinations, cuisines, wines, art, history and culture.

Download our Magazine

Categories

  • Lifestyle (17)
  • Queer News (13)
  • Travel Guides (67)
QUIIKY TOUR OPERATOR

VIAGGI LGBTQ+ TAILOR MADE

Scopri di più ⟶

media partner

We support

Member of

Newsletter

Ricevi tutte le novità dall’universo rainbow

Clicca qui

© 2022 Quiiky Magazine by Sonders&Beach - ROC Lombardia n. 21970 del 13/02/2012 | ISSN 2281-6186

Privacy Terms

  • About us
  • Advertising
  • LGBTQ+ Italy Travel Guide
  • Contact us
  • Plan your Trip
  • About us
  • Advertising
  • LGBTQ+ Italy Travel Guide
  • Contact us
  • Plan your Trip
  • English