LIFE AS A CROSSDRESSER Looking for Paradise? Here we are

Credit foto by Cristina Linguanti

LOOKING FOR PARADISE?

Here we are

Iwrite these notes long before the elections for the renewal of the Italian parliament are held. I thus don’t know what the situation is in which you are reading me now. However, the one thing I know is that whatever political brand is going to govern, Italy is not a homophobic nation nor is it afraid of the new. I am aware that, as everywhere, there are exceptions here too – but generally speaking, that’s it. My life, in its small way, gives an evidence. I am a crossdresser, one of the first ones, if not the first ever, to have come out in Italy. I was born in Milan and have always lived there, so I can confirm that what is said about my city is true: it is an open-minded European metropolis – after all, Expo 2015 was not held there by chance. It is not the only Italian city of this kind. There are Venice, Florence and Rome for instance. Although different, they have been used for centuries, i.e. even more than Milan, to interacting with tourists and visitors, to the full advantage of their cultural growth. Well, read my lips: I, the man in a sheath dress and high heels, have worked in Florence and Rome for many years. And when I say “worked” I mean “worked”: with office hours, public relations to carry out, even institutional contacts. As for my private life. My wife is Sicilian, I traveled around the island with her for over twenty summers. I met people of all backgrounds and ethnicities. And everywhere down there I have friends who support me and appreciate me. On our other island, Sardinia, I worked so much, and still do, at an institutional level as well, here too surrounded by people who have become fraternal friends. And then: Naples, one of the most engaging places in the world; Bologna, the city of my parents; Turin, where I have relatives and have also had countless partners; Genoa, where my wife lived during her university years and where I held tens of events; the whole of Apulia, from north to south, practically my second home considering the time I spent there and the amount of local people I know. I could go on but I just stop. Italy is waiting for you. With such a big smile.

Stefano Ferri

Started Let’s get it

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