The kings Felipe VI and Letizia They begin this Tuesday a visit of three days a Italiawhich will take them to the cities of Rome and Naples. The visit, which on this occasion has state character —number 17 since the proclamation of Felipe VI—, will have as climactic moment on Wednesday, when the Spanish monarchs will hold a closed-door meeting at the Roman mansion of Villa Doria Pamphili with the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloniand later, the King will give a speech in the Italian Congress.
The visit to Italia It occurs a decade after the first official (non-state) trip of the Spanish Kings to the country (2014) and takes place in a territory with which the Spanish monarchy has a relationship. antigua relationship. In Rome King Juan Carlos was bornfather of Felipe VI, in 1938. In addition, Felipe VI, both as prince and as king, has made at least nine previous trips to Italy (1997, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 and 2023) , visiting cities such as Naples, Milan, Turin, Palermo and Rome.
Significant, in this sense, is also the planned trip on Thursday to Napleswhere the Bourbon dynasty reigned between 1734 and 1861a legacy little appreciated in the past but, in more recent decades, the Italian authorities have rescued in order to rehabilitate the memory of Spain in Italy. There, in the capital of Campania, Felipe VI will be invested as a doctor for the sake of honor by Federico II Universityone of the best university centers specialized in the Arab and Islamic world in Europe.
gala dinner
Before that, the visit will begin this Tuesday afternoon in Romewhere the Kings will first meet with the Association of Italian Hispanists at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome. Next, in that same place, they will meet a group of representatives of the spanish community resident in Italy, before whom the King will deliver the first of the three speeches scheduled for the tour.
On Wednesday—in addition to the private meeting with Meloni and Philip VI’s speech in Congress—, the agenda will also include an official reception at the Quirinal Palace, where the monarchs will be received by the president of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarellaand by her daughter Laura, who acts as first lady. Then, the Kings will place a wreath at the monument to the Unknown Soldier at the Altar of the Homeland, in Venice Square. In the evening, they are also expected to attend a gala dinner offered by Mattarella, after a brief meeting with the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri.
On Thursday, the last day, Felipe VI will meet with Italian and Spanish businessmen, while Letizia Ortiz, UN ambassador since 2015, will visit Spanish staff working at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). ). The tour will close with the transfer to Naples.
