Prato della Valle is an enormous eighteenth-century square (88,629 m2) designed by the superintendent Andrea Memmo with a tree-lined island in the center, adorned with 78 statues of illustrious people linked to the city. All male obviously, with the sole exception of the famous poet Gaspara Stampa – whose bust is located at the foot of the statue of the sculptor Andrea Briosco.

Author of the most original songbook of the sixteenth century, Gaspara lived her love adventures with men and women in total freedom, so much so that in the nineteenth century she was defined as a new Sappho. Having assumed the stage name of Anaxilla, she dedicated some of her compositions to the women she loved, such as Elena Barozza and Ippolita Mirtilla. Despite her premature death, at the age of 31 and in obscure circumstances, she is remembered today (she, a woman) for having revolutionized the way of writing poetry in Italy, at the time still linked to Petrarchian models. The strength with which she proclaimed the woman's right to love beyond conventions is well summed up by one of her most famous verses <<live burning and feel no evil>>.

The visit to Prato della Valle is also a precious opportunity to reflect on the representation of women in public space. In the wake of the protests that have swept across the streets of the world in recent years, Padua has also begun to question the urgency of a change of perspective. For example, why not occupy the empty stalls of the Prato with new statues of women who have contributed to the history and prestige of the city? From the first woman graduate in the world on down, there is no shortage of examples.

Son of the Venetian poet Bernardo, Torquato Tasso is among the most important figures of Italian literature, author of the well-known poem "La Gerusalemme liberata". Having moved to Padua to study law, he formed relationships with important intellectuals of the time.

It is only from the end of the nineteenth century that his homosexuality began to be highlighted, which could partly explain his discomfort in the face of the perception of widespread hostility - a discomfort that at times bordered on paranoia. It is above all through correspondence that his orientation emerges clearly. For example, some letters he wrote to Monsignor Luca Scalabrino in 1576 (who in turn was in love with the poet) in which he confesses to loving one of his students: "I love him, and I am about to love him for a few more months, because too much strong impression was that which love created in my soul".

It is probable that the hostile climate of the Counter-Reformation influenced his fear of being spied on and caught red-handed, so much so that in Ferrara he was interned as a madman for seven years in the Arcispedale di S. Anna.

We choose to include Tasso's voice in our map as a symbol of a more general censorship towards the sexuality of such national-popular characters, as if their homosexuality limited their story.

Pietro Bembo was a fundamental figure in the codification of the Italian language: his grammar in fact provided the rules that transformed Tuscan from a dialect to a language. He lived in the center of Padua and today his building curiously houses the Museum of the Third Army, what a change!

What they never told us at school, however, was the type of company he surrounded himself with.

As his son's tutor he chose Jacopo Bonfadio, who upon completing his assignment had the unfortunate idea of moving to Genoa. Far from his powerful friends and the Venetian environment, Bonfadio was burned at the stake following a conviction for sodomy:

Dying weighs me down, because I don't think I deserve so much: and yet I am satisfied with [resignation to] God's will. And it still weighs on me [also], because I am ungrateful, not being able to give a sign [express] to so many honored gentlemen, who have sweated and anguished for me, and especially to Your Lordship, of my grateful soul.

For example, his personal secretary is Antonio Anselmi, whom the Venetian poet Domenico Dolce does not hesitate to stalk so that he can send his young lover back to Venice - something that Anselmi is careful not to do.

At his house Bembo also hosted the Florentine poet Benedetto Varchi and the famous sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, whose homosexual orientation is among the most documented in the history of the Renaissance. For his part, Cellini, over whose head several convictions for sodomy outside the Republic of Venice hung, wanted to thank the host for his hospitality by portraying him in a splendid medal:

Messer Pietro gave me the most endless caresses that could ever be given to a man in the world. He had tidied up a room for me that would be too honorable for a cardinal, and he continually wanted me to eat next to him in his lordship.

Bembo instead gave him three horses to allow him to escape more quickly.

In the ancient courtyard, literally covered by the coats of arms of illustrious students, there is a beautiful bust of Sir John Finch, pro-rector of the Faculty of Medicine and later English ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Finch came to Padua in 1651 with his inseparable friend Thomas Baines (of more modest origins) to learn the medical art in the then most prestigious place: the coats of arms of both are still visible in the ancient courtyard.

Finch subsequently embarked on a diplomatic career in Constantinople and was always accompanied by Baines, who appeared at the Courts as the ambassador's companion. When Baines died of fevers in 1680, "cutting off every thread of my earthly happiness", a desperate Finch returned to England and two years later died of pleurisy.

Buried together in the chapel of Christ's College, Cambridge, their 35-year love affair has survived to this day at that glorious university, where Finch & Baines Fellows are still elected. The portraits of Finch and Baines, painted in Italy by Carlo Dolci, are also preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

To give us a further idea of the libertine climate that reigned in the Paduan university environment, we can cite the stories of a professor, a certain Carlo Federli, investigated by the Inquisition but never convicted - thanks above all to the protection guaranteed by Venice to the University. Not only did Federli not hide his sexual orientation but he went so far as to proclaim himself the "Pope of sodomy" and promoted colleagues and lovers to "cardinals of Sodom", going around the university district and imparting unorthodox blessings.

The text of the accusation is so entertaining that it deserves to be quoted:

not content with having made, as he does, public profession of nefarious vice (sodomy), with serious scandal and murmuring among good people, he brutally allowed himself to be carried away by his insane, or rather diabolical, appetites, and has come to have such contempt and contempt of the Holy Apostolic See to be called the Pope of sodomy, while he taught at the university (...) as such he also appointed many of his co-professors and lovers as cardinals of his consistory, and gave them the papal blessing (...) and lastly he went so far as to say that he would die happy whenever he could first commit such an outrageous excess with the true pontiff

Mariasilvia Spolato was the first woman in Italy to publicly declare her homosexuality. She was an activist and pioneer of LGBT rights.

Graduated in mathematical sciences, teacher and author of manuals for students, in 1971 she was among the founders of Flo (Homosexual Liberation Front), which later merged into FUORI! (Italian Revolutionary Homosexual Unitary Front) with which she founded and became editor of the magazine of the same name.

His politics are characterized by a strong internationalist desire: he had contacts with the French FAHR (Front Homosexuel d'Action Révolutionnaire) and with LGBT groups in the Netherlands, which he personally visited. This political propensity culminates in the writing of "the homosexual liberation movements" where he collects experiences and political manifestos of homosexual groups outside of Italy.

For her homosexuality and political activity, she was discriminated against and persecuted until she became a homeless woman. For this reason we locate her experience at the station where the excluded wander and struggle, but this does not mean they have less precious and courageous lives. She now rests in Bolzano, her tomb was paid for by an anonymous donor.

In July 1972 Padua became the destination for two days of various feminist groups from Italy, England, the United States and France who met in the city for an international conference.

The aim was to carry forward the battle for the establishment of a domestic wage that would repay all that indispensable and invisible work carried out by women within the walls of the home to guarantee the functioning of the family and society . The theory is developed particularly in the context of Venetian feminism, where we find various groups (e.g. Lotta Femminista) and exponents, such as Maria Rosa Dalla Costa. The claim for the value of domestic work was also based on the anti-capitalist ideals embraced by these groups who, for this very reason, felt the need to organize themselves in an international network. It was on that occasion, in fact, that the International Feminist Collective was born, in whose context the International Wages for Housework Campaign was born.

Today, you can reread the history of that 70s feminism,, in the archive of the Lotta Femminista for domestic work wages. The material,  from the flyers to the founding documents, has been donated by the professor Maria Rosa Dalla Costa to the Civic Library, so that struggle definitively became a common heritage of the city.

Nicolino Tosoni, originally from Cavazzo Carnico, was a very important figure in the history of the LGBT movement in Padua and Italy. Poet and politician, he dedicated his entire life to radical politics and quickly became one of the most remembered names on Radio Radicale.

In 1971, Tosoni founded AIRDO (Italian Association for the Recognition of Homophile Rights) in Verona, the same year in which he founded FUORI (Italian Revolutionary Homosexual Unitary Front) in Turin and is still president of FUORI. Tosoni also participated in the protest of the 1st Italian Congress of Sexology in Sanremo, a focal moment of Italian LGBT history

We decided to place this item in the "Sala degli Anziani" of the city council, which has hosted conferences and initiatives of radicals (and not only) several times.

In 1994, the University Cinematographic Center inaugurated the Days of Cinema and Homosexual Culture (Giornate di Cinema e cultura omosessuale) in May: a selection of films and short films from the Turin festival "From Sodom to Hollywood". Over the years the festival becomes a real institution for the city, attracting spectators even from outside the region, thanks to the commitment and passion of Luca Di Lorenzo. In addition to the cinema, conferences, presentations, aperitifs and parties are organized in parallel: the presence of Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk's nephew, in 2011 was memorable.

It is difficult to understand today the importance of this window for the community of the time, when there were no streaming and platforms like Netflix. Fortunately, the CUC continues to organize themed film evenings throughout the year, a precious opportunity to see works with little distribution and to discuss them in company - that experience of "chorality" that only going to the cinema can guarantee.