The 21 contestants in this year’s Mr. Gay Europe pageant got to experience a little Roman holiday before the competition got underway in the Eternal City on August 11.

But in the end, the title went to Spain’s Miguel Ortiz (right), making it the third year a Spaniard has taken the crown in the pageant’s seven-year history. But Ortiz’s boyish good looks and chiseled abs were not the only things that the judges took into consideration when selecting him: Contestants also had to take a written exam. And we’ve managed to snatch copies of their essays—check them out below!

Oh who are we kidding? What follows are more photos of the guys—who hail from Austria, Belarus, Northern Ireland, Turkey, Estonia, France, Malta, Germany and other regions on the Continent—splashing around in their Speedos.

Photos: Mr. Gay Europe