After Philip VI and Queen Letizia arrived in Rome this Tuesday to begin their state visit to Italy, where they met with the Spanish community, the monarchs were officially received. The country’s president Sergio Mattarella and his daughter Laura, who serves as first lady, welcomed them to the Quirinal Palace.
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© His Majesty the King’s House
© His Majesty the King’s House© His Majesty the King’s HouseFor this date, the Queen opted for a pale pink tweed suit with a jacket with original puffed sleeves and centerpiece embroidery and a straight skirt. Both the bag and the slingback shoes matched the tone. Laura Mattarella chose a dress in a bright pink and a burgundy cape.
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© His Majesty the King’s House
© His Majesty the King’s HouseThe Quirinal Palace is a hilltop historic building in Rome and is one of the three official residences of the country’s president, as well as one of the symbols of the Italian state. It has over 1,200 rooms and is surrounded by four hectares of gardens. It is the sixth largest palace in the world in terms of surface area and houses a diverse artistic collection of tapestries, paintings, sculptures, cars, clocks, furniture and porcelain.
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© GTRESAfter the meeting with the King, the Italian President and his daughter, Don Felipe, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez and other dignitaries, they held a meeting and gave a brief statement to the media. “Good morning and thank you all for your presence. Good luck and thank you for your presence. The Queen and I were looking forward to this state visit to Italy. Before today’s great official reception of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Sergio Mattarella, we had a meeting yesterday with the Association of Italian Hispanists on the occasion of its 50th anniversary and with the Spanish community, which is always special. For us being here together brings back great memories of our first official visit to Italy. We did it a few months after my announcement as King 10 years ago. It was an intense day, full of meaning, which began precisely here, in the Quirinal Palace. “We very sincerely thank President Mattarella for his invitation, a gratitude that we extend to the Italian authorities, whose support has been fundamental to the organization of this visit from the first moment,” said the King.
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© His Majesty the King’s HouseFor their part, Queen Letizia and Laura Mattarella held a meeting alone in a spectacular room of the Quirinal Palace. They then proceeded to the National Memorial to Victor Manuel II, also known as the Altar of the Homeland, to lay a wreath at the Unknown Soldier.
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© HM King’s HouseA lunch at the Casino del Bel Respiro, located in Villa Doria Pamphili, with the President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, closed the morning’s events. This place is the most unknown to most travelers to Rome because, along with the Villa Borghese, it is one of the most beautiful parks in the Eternal City. It is located in the Gianicolense neighborhood, just outside the walls, and houses the headquarters of the Presidency of the Council of State. Prince Camillo Pamphili built it in 1644 to display his collection of ancient statues.
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© His Majesty the King’s House
© His Majesty the King’s House
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© GTRESLater, they visited the headquarters of the Senate of the Italian Republic, together with its President Ignazio La Russa. In the afternoon, the monarchs will visit the Senate and Montessitorio Palace, where the Chamber of Deputies is headquartered and where Philip VI will address parliamentarians. After that, the king will go to Rome’s city hall to meet his mayor and at 8:00 p.m. a great event of the trip will happen: the gala dinner given by the Italian president to the kings and where Don Felipe. Address a few words to the guests.
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© HM King’s HouseFrom Rome to Naples
The trip will conclude on Thursday with a visit to the Cardinal Gallery at Colonna Palace where the King will preside over a business forum, and the Queen will visit the FAO headquarters. Subsequently, the monarchs will travel to Naples, where the sovereign will be awarded an honorary doctorate by the Federico II University of Naples, coinciding with the 8th centenary of its foundation, which will conclude this state visit.
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© GTRESThis is the second time that Don Felipe and Dona Letizia will be in Rome. In November 2014, a few months after the King’s announcement, they visited the transalpine country, their first official destination.
© HM King’s HouseSince 2015, when the Italian president was elected President of the Republic, his daughter has served as Italy’s First Lady, since Mattarella’s wife, Marisa Chiazesi, died of cancer in 2012.
