by Mick the Ram

King Charles III and Queen Camilla are to pay state visits to Italy and the Vatican in the spring of this year, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.

The royal couple are due to tour in early April and celebrate what the Palace are referring to as “the strong bilateral relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom”.

The Vatican part of the trip will see them meet up with Pope Francis and celebrate the Catholic Church’s Pilgrims of Hope jubilee year and the visit will also coincide with Charles and Camilla’s 20th wedding anniversary.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Pope on the last such jubilee year back in 2000.

This will be the first time the Pope has met with Charles since he became monarch and as a consequence, the supreme governor of the Church of England.

State visits are carried out on behalf of the Foreign Office and there are likely to be meetings with senior Italian government figures in an effort to build relations with what is regarded as an important European partner.

Full details of the itinerary will be revealed in due course.

Jubilee year for the Catholic Church

Charles and Camilla will attend the Holy See, which is the official name of the government of the Roman Catholic Church in its location of the Vatican, the tiny independent state that is surrounded by Rome and is the residence of the Pope who is of course the religion’s spiritual leader.

The year 2025 is a very special one for the Catholic Church as it is one of their “Jubilee” years that are traditionally held once every 25 years and regarded as a year of walking together as “Pilgrims of Hope”.

First visit as King

His Majesty has met Pope Francis on previous occasions, including at the Vatican in 2019 when the English-born Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonised as a saint.

He also met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican back in April 2009 when he was still the Prince of Wales. He was also accompanied on that occasion by his second wife, Camilla, after they were granted a private audience with the pontiff.

18th official Italian trip

The King is a frequent visitor to Italy due to his high regard for art and religion, having made 17 previous official visits, famously taking a gondola ride on Venice’s Grand Canal in 1985 with Princess Diana.

When he and Camilla return in April, as well as their meeting with the Pope the couple will visit Rome and the north-eastern city of Ravenna, known for its early Christian mosaic artwork.

Overseas visits lift spirits after diagnosis

The king is still feeling his way back into his international engagements following his cancer treatment, which continues albeit on more manageable terms.

The intention was always to step up his overseas trips this year after he reported how much of a “tonic” his long-haul visit to Australia and Samoa had been for him.

The Palace stated that Charles “genuinely loved” that tour and just as importantly “genuinely thrived” from the busy programme laid on for him as it lifted “his spirits, his mood and his recovery”.

As will very likely always be the case moving forward, a doctor will travel with the couple – Camilla has had her own health issues recently too – but the plans of officials and the wishes of Charles himself, are for him to maintain a positive approach to his cancer diagnosis, and as such will maintain an exhaustive schedule.

Meeting between royals and Pope at the Vatican rare

Visits by royals to the Vatican over the years have actually been few and far between. Queen Elizabeth II first visited the Vatican prior to her own accession to the throne.

Her second visit didn’t come until a decade later and was a private visit in May 1962 when she was received by Pope John XXIII. She then made just one more visit during the last century, in 1980 to speak with Pope John Paul II, although she did return in 2000.

Delight at announcement

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has warmly welcomed the announcement that the royal couple will undertake State Visits to the Holy See and Italy itself on a trip that is now just a couple of months away.

“I am delighted King Charles and Queen Camilla will visit the Holy See and meet with Pope Francis during this special Jubilee Year when so many will gather in Rome as pilgrims of hope,” he said, before adding: “It presents a wonderful opportunity for us to celebrate the close relationship between the UK and the Holy See.”