King and Queen leave Italy after state visit

King Charles and Queen Camilla have left Italy after a four-day state visit, where they had received a warm reception.

They ended the trip with a celebration of the country's food, trying their hand at making pasta at a festival in Ravenna.

The visit had included a brief private meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican, where the pontiff, who has been seriously ill, gave them his best wishes for their 20th wedding anniversary, which they celebrated on Wednesday.

On Thursday, they had an enthusiastic welcome from big crowds in the historic city of Ravenna, with people waiting hours in the Italian sunshine to see the royal visitors.

On the last day of the visit the King and Queen had a tour around a food festival full of local produce. It included sampling a pairing of parmesan cheese with whiskey.

There was a slight end-of-term feel to the event, after an intensive few days of ceremonial events, with the King and Queen looking relaxed as they shook hands with crowds lining the square.

The King has spoken of his love for Italian culture and the trip to Ravenna allowed him to see the tomb of the writer Dante Alighieri. The Italian writer is famous for his depictions of heaven and hell, but despite any pressures from his ongoing health problems, the King showed no sign of being in any kind of purgatory.

Dressed in a summery suit on a hot afternoon, he was quick to get over to chat to people at the barriers. Although in a heaving square, he was more at risk of being mobbed by a battalion of dignitaries than people who had come to see him.

There was also a commemoration in Ravenna's town hall of the role played by Canadian troops in liberating this part of Italy in the Second World War.

The King is also head of state of Canada – and he has been at pains to send symbolic signs of support to Canada, at a time when it has been put under pressure by US President Donald Trump.

This has been a very well-received state visit that seemed to generate plenty of goodwill, with a warm reception from both the Italian public and political leaders.

The King received a standing ovation after a speech in Italy's Parliament on Wednesday, where he called for Italy and the UK to stand together to defend democratic values.

He praised how the UK and Italy "stood by Ukraine in her hour of need".

At a state banquet at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, where the King and Queen spent the evening of their wedding anniversary, the King joked about the lavish dinner for 150 guests.

"I must say it really is very good of you, Mr President, to lay on this small romantic, candle-lit dinner for two…," the King told the banquet.

Such state visits are carried out on behalf of the government and the backdrop to this trip to Italy has been a wave of international economic and diplomatic turmoil, with the conflict in Ukraine being mentioned in both of the King's speeches.

"We are living in a very precarious and fragile world," the King told the state banquet on Wednesday evening.

The UK government has been keen for a post-Brexit "reset" with its European partners and the state visit saw multiple references to the military links between the UK and Italy.

This was given symbolic form by a joint flypast thundering over Rome from the UK's Red Arrows and the Italian pilots of the Frecce Tricolori.

The King had summed this up in his speech: "In difficult times, friends stand together." In a country full of antiquities, this was a theme both ancient and modern.