Florence
Duomo to Santa Croce, Florence Gets a Desi Night
Florence has a growing South Asian community of students and professionals contributing to the city's international character
We're Coming to Florence!Florence is on the tour list. Sign up below and help us get there! Everyone on the list gets tickets first when we announce.
Florence is a city that three million tourists visit every year, and somewhere in between the Uffizi crowds and the David selfie lines, there's a resident South Asian community that's easy to miss. The University of Florence attracts Indian students, the European University Institute in nearby Fiesole brings in South Asian researchers and academics, and the study abroad industry that's essentially Florence's second economy creates a constant churn of international students, some of them desi.
The format from New York: real contestants go on live dates on stage while the room watches and reacts. Afterward, the whole crowd mingles. In Florence, this format is designed to concentrate the scattered desi community into one room for one night, creating connections that the apps and expat mixers never deliver.
The leather goods industry in Santa Croce and the broader Tuscan manufacturing sector employ South Asian workers. The restaurant scene includes a handful of Indian places near San Lorenzo market. The Indian community exists across the city but doesn't cluster in one neighbourhood the way it does in Rome's Esquilino or Milan's Porta Venezia. That dispersal makes a gathering event more necessary, not less.
Florence's cultural calendar is packed, from Calcio Storico to art exhibitions to the wine festivals in the surrounding Chianti hills. But nothing on that calendar speaks to South Asian singles. This show fills a specific gap in a city that has everything except this.
Waitlist is open. Florence is part of our Italian tour plans. or apply to be a contestant.
Florence stages the world's romances and skips its own
Florence's economy runs on other people's love stories: proposals at sunset points, honeymoon itineraries, wedding shoots on the Ponte Vecchio's edges. Its own desi community, university and design students, leather trade workers, hospitality professionals, is small and completely unprogrammed, living in the world's most romantic set with no local production.
One show flips the camera. Florence's desi singles get the Renaissance staging for themselves, and the mixer's backdrop needs no set design budget.
What a Garam Masala night in Florence looks like
A design school student and a university researcher who have never met, on stage, going on a first date in a city that has painted this exact scene for six centuries. Comedian hosts, live votes and an Oltrarno mixer as the Duomo does its evening glow.
for first access to Florence dates, or apply to be a contestant and commission your own Renaissance.
No Florence dates are live yet. The show tours nationally and sells out every stop. Watch full episodes while we make our way to you!
Watch Full Episodes on YouTube Follow on InstagramHelp bring us to Florence! Everyone on the list gets first access when tickets drop.
See All Upcoming ShowsStay in the Loop
Get notified about future Florence shows, discount codes, and free ticket drops.
Add your number for text-only discounts and free ticket drops.
You're on the list!
Questions About Florence Shows
When is Garam Masala Dating coming to Florence?
No date confirmed yet. Florence is on our Europe expansion radar. to be notified first.
Will the show be in English?
Yes. The show runs in English, which works because the South Asian professional and student community in Florence is comfortable in English.
Can I apply to be a contestant?
Yes. Apply now. Applications stay active for 12 months. Florence applicants will be prioritized when we confirm a date.
Is there Indian speed dating in Florence?
Florence hosts three million tourists' romances a year and none for its own desi residents. The Renaissance city's small desi scene deserves one night where the beauty serves the locals.
Where do desi singles in Florence actually meet?
The university and design school cohorts, the leather and fashion trade's workshops and Oltrarno evenings where the postcard crowds thin out. Small scene, magnificent setting, no format.
Will the show compete with the Uffizi?
The Uffizi closes at seven and does not run a mixer. We schedule accordingly and consider the David an opening act.