![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mwanzotv.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/maxresdefault-16.jpg\")
The trip comes 10 days after Charles, 76, had his own health scare, being admitted to hospital after experiencing temporary side effects from his cancer treatment.<\/p>\n
Royal sources cited by the UK media said the king was “raring to go” on the trip, during which he will also celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary with wife Camilla.<\/p>\n
Charles, who is the head of the Church of England, was scheduled to meet Pope Francis on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
But the 88-year-old head of the Catholic Church is recovering from life-threatening pneumonia at his Vatican home, where doctors say he will need at least two months of convalescence, forcing the king to reschedule his plans.<\/p>\n
“Their Majesties send The Pope their best wishes for his convalescence\u00a0and look forward to visiting him in The Holy See, once he has recovered,” said the royal family’s official X account.<\/p>\n
Francis made a surprise appearance Sunday as he mingled with crowds at the Vatican, two weeks after leaving hospital.<\/p>\n
Charles, who is making his first visit to Italy as king, will instead spread his Rome engagements over two days, allowing “the programme to breathe a bit”, according to a royal source.<\/p>\n
The couple will visit the Colosseum Archaeological Park in Rome, where they will be met by Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, his ministry has announced.<\/p>\n
Charles will also meet Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella, and is set to become the first British monarch to address a joint sitting of the Italian parliament, according to Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
– ‘Minor bump’ –<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
The king and queen are expected to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on Wednesday at a state banquet in Rome.<\/p>\n
Following a decades-long affair, the couple married on April 9, 2005, at a ceremony in Windsor, followed by a religious blessing in the grounds of Windsor Castle.<\/p>\n
Charles announced he had cancer in February 2024.<\/p>\n
Just six weeks after came the news that his daughter-in-law Catherine, Princess of Wales, had also been diagnosed with cancer and had begun chemotherapy.<\/p>\n
Catherine, who is married to throne heir and Charles’s eldest son, Prince William, said in January that she was now in remission.<\/p>\n
Charles returned to work within two and a half months and gradually ramped up his duties during the rest of 2024, making several foreign trips that took him as far as Australia and Samoa.<\/p>\n
But the Italy trip was thrown into doubt on March 27, when the palace announced Charles had been hospitalised due to side effects from his weekly treatment.<\/p>\n
Officials said the stay of a few hours was a “minor bump” in his medical journey, and he resumed engagements last Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Charles and Camilla will also visit Rome and Ravenna in northern Italy to celebrate “the strong bilateral relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom”, the palace said.<\/p>\n
While there, they will attend a reception marking the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from Nazi occupation by Allied forces on April 10, 1945.<\/p>\n
jwp\/cw\/jhb<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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