Italy boasts a prestigious tradition of homoerotic poetry, spanning from the Middle Ages to the present day. Outside Italy, the situation is quite different. Among the great literatures, only Anglo-American literature—which embraced “modern” homosexuality—has experienced a comparable, widespread, and ongoing literary phenomenon. Despite their poetic value, most anthologies exclude erotic texts between two men: clear proof, once again, that love is not a neutral concept. De beste jeugd (The Best of Youth) aims to introduce Dutch audiences to several voices from the last century, each with their own stylistic characteristics, hailing from different regions, periods, and cultural contexts. These texts, in fact, belong to the most important love poetry: Umberto Saba, Sandro Penna, and Pier Paolo Pasolini are names that cannot be missing from an anthology of the contemporary Italian canon. Alongside them, our selection includes poems lesser-known abroad, among the most celebrated of their generation. This volume addresses an important and multifaceted topic and intends to provide a stimulus for further research.