King and Queen to celebrate anniversary on major trip to Italy and Vatican

The couple will be heading on a major spring tour in early April where they will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican. The King and Queen are set to spend their 20th wedding anniversary on a state trip to Italy and the Vatican. Buckingham Palace confirmed the couple will be heading on a major spring tour in early April, as Charles, 76, forges ahead with regular overseas trips this year as he adapts to living with cancer.

They will meet Pope Francis at the Vatican and celebrate the Catholic Church’s Pilgrims of Hope jubilee year. The couple will attend the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church, which is located in the Vatican – the smallest independent state in the world which is surrounded by Rome and is the residence of the spiritual leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. In Italy, the couple will visit Rome and the northeastern city of Ravenna, known for its early Christian mosaic artwork.

The intention for the monarch to go on more overseas trips in 2025 emerged at the end of the King’s long-haul visit to Australia and Samoa, which was described as the “perfect tonic” for the monarch. In October last year, a palace official said: “We’re now working on a pretty normal looking full overseas tour programme for next year, which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms.”.

The King “genuinely loved” the tour and “genuinely thrived” on the Australian and Samoan programme, said the official, as it lifted “his spirits, his mood and his recovery. Maintaining a work schedule after his diagnosis has been an important part of Charles’s holistic approach to his cancer, and during the trip he maintained a busy schedule for the benefit of “mind and soul” while a doctor accompanied him on the trip.

The latest tour announcement comes the week after Charles travelled to Poland for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Charles has been determined to return to his full duties after he was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer last year. Before the state visit in April, the King and Queen will join Hollywood star Stanley Tucci for a black tie dinner celebrating Italian cuisine at Highgrove on Friday evening.

The pair have invited the Italian-American Devil Wears Prada actor and well-known foodie, alongside Italian ambassador to the UK Inigo Lambertini, to Charles’s Gloucestershire estate to enjoy a feast of sustainable “Slow Food”, an initiative which promotes local and traditional cuisine. The menu has been created by renowned Italian chef Francesco Mazzei and inspired by Tucci, who fronted the TV series Tucci – The Heart of Italy.