King Charles has warned of the need for democracies such as the UK and Italy to stand together in such troubled international times, as he became the first UK monarch to address both houses of the Italian Parliament.
The King received a long standing ovation from parliamentarians in Rome, as he gave a speech on the third day of his state visit to Italy.
The visit also coincided with the King and Queen’s 20th wedding anniversary.
Queen Camilla, who attended Parliament with the King, was wearing the same outfit she wore on her wedding day in 2005.
The ivory silk dress had been “repurposed” to wear again for this anniversary day and the visit to Italy’s Parliament.
Earlier in the day, the Queen had been given a Margherita pizza on a visit to a school in Rome, in honour of her wedding anniversary.
The King’s speech to Italy’s lawmakers, in their ornately-decorated chamber in the Palazzo Montecitorio, was a rallying call to defend shared values and the need to reinforce the military partnership between the UK and Italy.
“We are both European countries,” he said, standing in front of the Italian and European Union flags.
He welcomed that the UK and Italy “stood by Ukraine in her hour of need”, but warned that images of wars were now reverberating across the continent – and that young people were seeing images of destruction on their “smartphones and tablets”.
“Peace is never to be taken for granted,” said the King.
Delivering some of the speech in Italian, he spoke of the long history between the UK and Italy and shared culture, going back to the ancient Romans arriving on Britain’s “windswept shores”.
Part of the culture being returned was musicians such as Ed Sheeran playing in Italy.
Italy in the Second World War.
Credit: bbc.com
