Andrea: No, Rome is not the unofficial capital of the homosexuals. Gay people are everywhere.
Rome is very backward in this regard due to cultural and historical reasons and because the headquarter of the Catholic Church is here. The mentality is backwards too.
Rome is – concerning gay people – not avant-garde. In Europe the progressive gay cities are in northern Europe, for example, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Amsterdam and now Spain. In the last 20 years Spain has made great progress, but Italy still is lagging behind.
There is no organized, visible gay community. Rome is very attached to his past, poetically, historically and symbolically. Rome is associated with a symbolic representation of homosexuality: There were a lot of gay artists, sculptors or painters in Rome.
In addition, a lot of gay tourists come to Rome, because this city has a strong power of attraction. Since the 18th century there is a long tradition of gay tourism. At that time the aristocratic sons of Northern Europe spent their holidays in Italy and some of these young men were gay. Rome never has lost this power of attraction so far, but Rome is definitely not avant-garde for gay people.

Andrea: That's a difficult question and I have never really understood why I fall in love with someone.
First, there must be a physical attraction, a certain chemistry, but this doesn't mean that I'm already in love. This is only the next step and it doesn't happen often.
Very often it remains a flirtatious affection, which can be very intense too, but sometimes only lasts one day. This is also a kind of love, but it fades away quickly or finished soon.
One will not find one's great love very often in one's life.
The characteristic of gay love was their disregard by society. Gay love was a secret love.
In many European countries this problem has been overcome or it is slowly changing slowly e.g. thanks to the legalization of the gay marriage. But Italy still remains backwards. Here, gay love is still a bit secret and this distinguishes it from the love of heterosexuals.

Andrea: First of all I'm not a believer but an atheist, and if I would meet the Pope, I would simply regard him as the representative of the Vatican State.
In my opinion he is a very powerful, political representative and I think that he is smart and respectable. However, he remains the Pope of the Catholic Church and I don't expect great openness and that he acts with real consistency.
For example, France has sent the homosexual ambassador Laurent Stefanini to the Vatican and the Vatican has rejected him, but of course the Vatican does not say openly that it rejects him because he is gay.
On the one hand the Pope said, ›who am I that I can judge the gays‹, and that he wouldn't be able to do so which raised hopes among many people. But in reality there aren't any concrete steps by the Church towards the gay.