King Charles III shrugs off health scare to begin Italy visit

King Charles III arrives in Italy on Monday for a four-day visit where he will become the first UK monarch to address Italy’s joint parliament, but will not meet Pope Francis due to the pontiff’s health issues.

The trip comes 10 days after Charles, 76, had his own health scare and was admitted to hospital after experiencing temporary side effects from his cancer treatment.

Royal sources cited by the UK media said the king was “raring to go” on the trip, during which he will also celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary with wife Camilla.

Charles, who is the head of the Protestant Church of England, had been due to meet Pope Francis on Tuesday.

But the 88-year-old head of the Catholic Church is recovering from life-threatening pneumonia at his home in the Vatican, where doctors say he will need at least two months of convalescence, forcing to the king to change his plans.

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“Their Majesties send the Pope their best wishes for his convalescence and look forward to visiting him in The Holy See, once he has recovered,” the royal family’s official X account said on March 25.

Francis made a surprise appearance Sunday as he mingled with crowds at the Vatican, two weeks after leaving hospital.

Charles has officially visited Italy 17 times but this is his first as king. His Rome engagements are spread over two days, with local authorities warning of disruptions for locals due to tight security and roadblocks.

The king will meet Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella, and is set to become the first British monarch to address a joint sitting of the Italian parliament, according to Buckingham Palace.

Charles and Camilla will have a tour of the Colosseum in Rome, accompanied by Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli. The king will also visit the working-class neighbourhood of Testaccio.

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The king and queen will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and watch a joint flypast over Rome by Italy’s “Frecce Tricolori” air force aerobatic team and Britain’s “Red Arrows”.

‘Minor bump’

The king and queen are expected to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on Wednesday at a state banquet at the 16th-century Palazzo Quirinale in Rome, and have reportedly asked for a vegetarian menu, according to Italian media.

Following a decades-long affair while Charles was married to the late Princess Diana, the couple married on April 9, 2005, at a civil ceremony in Windsor, followed by a religious blessing at Windsor Castle.

Charles announced he had cancer in February 2024.

Just six weeks after came the news that his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, had also been diagnosed with cancer and had begun chemotherapy.

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Catherine, who is married to Charles’s eldest son and heir Prince William, said in January that she was now in remission.

Charles returned to work within two and a half months and gradually ramped up his duties during the rest of 2024, making several foreign trips that took him as far as Australia and Samoa.

But the Italy trip was thrown into doubt on March 27, when the palace announced Charles had been taken to hospital due to side effects from his weekly treatment.

Officials said the stay of a few hours was a “minor bump” in his medical journey, and he resumed engagements last Tuesday.

Charles and Camilla will also visit Ravenna in northern Italy where they will attend a reception marking the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from Nazi occupation by Allied forces on April 10, 1945, the palace said.

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– By: © Agence France-Presse