The King and Queen will pay a state visit to Italy and the Holy See in early April, meeting Pope Francis to mark celebrations for 2025 Catholic Holy Year, Buckingham Palace says.

The trip will involve engagements in Rome and Ravenna, the palace said, “celebrating the strong bilateral relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom”.

It will be the King’s 17th official visit to Italy and the first overseas trip for him this year as he continues his cancer treatment.

Full details of the trip are yet to be released by the palace, but British media reported that it would include a visit to the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel. The timing would coincide with the royal couple’s 20th wedding anniversary.

They married on April 9, 2005, the day after the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The King, as Prince of Wales, attended the service.

The King, as the British monarch, is the supreme governor of the Church of England, which split from Rome in 1534. He has previously met Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, on visits to Italy in 2017 and 2019. In the past, he also met Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

His mother, Queen Elizabeth, also visited the Holy See in 2000 during the last Catholic jubilee year.

Before the state visits, the King and Queen will join Hollywood star Stanley Tucci at the monarch’s British residence, Highgrove, for a black tie dinner celebrating Italian cuisine.

The couple have invited the US actor and well-known foodie, along with  and the Italian ambassador to the UK, Inigo Lambertini, to Charles’s Gloucestershire estate to enjoy a feast of sustainable Slow Food.

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.

The menu will be created from entirely British ingredients blended with Italian culinary traditions and local flavours, and aims to embody the principles of Slow Food.

The King has long been a champion of the Slow Food philosophy.

-with PA