Victor Palchetti-Beard, 67, and Gianni Manetti, 70: Florence, Tuscany

Palchetti-Beard and Manetti have been a couple for 43 years. Palchetti-Beard came to Italy in 1975 during his university years. Shortly after arriving, he met Manetti through shared friends and it was true love – but as an American he could not stay long in Italy. So Manetti’s mother decided to adopt Palchetti-Beard in order to help her son start a family. However, this family cannot be made official with a civil union because the pair are brothers from a legal point of view. Follow Melissa Ianniello on Instagram

Vittorino Panzani, 76, and William Belli, 69: Trento, Trentino-South Tyrol

Panzani and Belli have been together 47 years. Both came out at a very young age and immediately after started to actively participate in the LGBT movement. Over the years they have never missed the Pride festival and have travelled all over the world. They live in Trento, where they have been working for over 20 years as antiquarians, and were married in a civil union

Monica Maestri, 63, and Ornella Brugnara, 72: Trento, Trentino-South Tyrol

Maestri and Brugnara have been a couple since 1988. They met through mutual friends, even though at first Maestri lived in Bologna and Brugnara in Trento. Although they never had a real coming out experience, they have never tried to hide their relationship. They are fond of going to the mountains and cycling holidays, and love attending lesbian-themed cultural events

Zeno Zappi, 65, and Massimo Coralli, 56: Imola, Emilia-Romagna

Zappi and Coralli have been together for 12 years. They are very close to their families who have known for a long time that they were gay. They live openly as homosexuals. They are united not only by their love, but also by their shared passion: creating jewellery from recycled material. This led them to open a business; most recently, they have tried to promote their artistic laboratory and their creations through street markets

Lara Elia, 46, and Lia D’Urso, 64: Nicolosi, Sicily

Elia and D’Urso met online in 2009, in the field of lesbian feminism activism. D’Urso is a retired restorer from Catania, and Elia was born in Africa to an Italian father and English mother but was raised in Rome. She is a journalist who deals with scientific dissemination. They live in a small villa in Nicolosi where they divide their lives between their passion for gardening and love for their pets. They are avid activists who never miss Pride

Umberto Davini, 68: Altopascio, Tuscany

Davini has been a great traveller since he was young – he wanted to explore new realities and travel. In the 1970s he set off for India to meet the mystic Osho; it was the beginning of a very special trip that continues today, within him. He is vegetarian, almost vegan, loves nature, and for some time has dedicated himself to a new passion, photography. He enjoys photographing the stones that have been eroded over time or smoothed by the waterways, and tree trunks pulled on to the beach by waves

Anna Palla, 63: Cagliari, Sardinia

Having spent half her life in search of money and success, Palla decided to undertake a spiritual journey. This allowed her to free herself from her old “idols” and led to her own renaming: nubedivento. Today she feels like a free woman. She has found within herself what she was mistakenly looking for elsewhere

Maria Laura Annibali, 74, and Lidia Merlo, 72: Rome, Lazio

Annibali and Merlo have known each other for 17 years. Their love blossomed at a mature age, but it struck like a classic bolt of lightning. It was Merlo who won over Annibali: on top of a relentless courting full of sweet nothings and poetry, she wrote a dedication to Annibali one night on the wall in front of her house: “Laura, I am passionately and hopelessly in love with you.” They began dating and soon after became an official couple. They recently married in a civil union

Gianni Picciotto, 72: Perugia, Umbria

Picciotto is of Sicilian origin. He came out as gay at a young age. He told his family, who welcomed and accepted him thanks to the help of his mother. While still a minor, Picciotto met a man named Pino. Once Picciotto had turned 18, they set off for Torino in search of work. They had an intense relationship for 52 years until Pino’s death in 2015. On 14 April 2020, Gianni died aged 72

Edda Billi, 86: Rome, Lazio

Billi was born in Follonica, in the coastal area of Maremma. She was a teenager when she fell in love with an older girl who drove a jeep and loved poetry and literature. It was this young woman who introduced Billi to the world of books and culture. The pressure that Billi’s family put on her because of her sexual orientation led her to move to Rome. She has become an emancipated woman: a poet, and activist with the separatist feminist movement. Even today, Billi refers to herself as being in love with women and with life

Stella Marchi

, 65, and Paola Fognani, 73: Rome, LazioMarchi and Fognani have been a couple since as far back as 1984. They have overcome many challenges together, such as Marchi’s tumour. They were married in a civil union and live in their house in Rome with their cats. Both are LGBT activists and are great travellers who love the mountains. They are an example of how, despite having spent many years together, the passion is still alive between them: they still love each other in the same way they did before

Giovanni Rodella, 66: Florence, Tuscany

Rodella was born in the Mantova area but moved to Florence to do his military service once he was old enough. It was during his military conscription that he discovered he was gay. These were years of liberation for him – once he had overcome his feelings of guilt, he was finally able to come out to himself and accept his homosexuality. A professional photographer, Rodella is an active participant in political and cultural events of the LGBT movement

Paolo Melato, 71: Rome, Lazio

Melato came out as gay when he was 30 years old after the break-up of a heterosexual relationship. From that moment he started to see different men, generally younger than him, until he met his greatest love: a doctor. They stayed together for many years, until he was diagnosed with Aids and died young. They spent many difficult years together: they had to deal with prejudice and fears in a period in which the disease was spreading quickly and little was known about it. Melato now lives in an apartment with his dog

Pasquale Ferro, 63: Ischitella, Campania

Ferro was born in Naples. He had a difficult childhood, full of misery and violence, and he was denied the opportunity to attend school. Despite that he was able to redeem himself over the years. He discovered he was gay and came into contact with the homosexual scene in Naples. He began writing and doing theatre, letting himself get inspired by the street and its stories. In time he became a playwright and also worked as a journalist

Silvano Patacca, 65: Pisa, Tuscany

Patacca is the programme director at the Fondazione Teatro Verdi (Verdi Theatre Foundation) in Pisa. He loves his job, as well as theatre, and is an old romantic looking for his soulmate – he refuses to give up looking. He still hopes to meet a man with whom he can have a stable relationship, a relationship that will give him that sense of stability he has been longing for his whole life

Tina Meriggi, 78 years old, and Lorenza Accorsi, 72 years old, Milan, Lombardy

Tina and Lorenza met at the over 40s social group held by ArciLesbica in Milan. At that time, Tina was almost 60 years old. Despite their age, their relationship was full of passion from the very beginning. It was during their first holiday at a nudist camp site in Normandy that they truly fell in love. Three years after they first met, Tina retired; from then on, they started to travel a lot, more than before, seeing the world together. In 2018 they were married in a civil union in Milan