From the Telegraph:
“ Just 24 hours before his arrival in Italy he was in hospital for his regular cancer treatment – no fuss, just part of his diary nowadays.
By Monday night, he and the Queen stepped onto a British government plane and flew to Rome, touching down flanked by two F-35 jets.
The King has at times looked tired and red-eyed. But no-one has doubted his enthusiasm.
From the mosaics of Ravenna to the bio-circular economy, he has been keenly interested from dawn until dusk.
It was in Parliament on Wednesday that the King truly made his mark.
A speech, worked on between the palace and the embassy as per usual protocol, saw him raise topics and drop names close to the hearts of Italians, winning rounds of applause for well-chosen mentions of “heroine of the resistance” Paola Del Din and “legendary anti-mafia prosecutor” Giovanni Falcone.
The jokes – about Garibaldi biscuits and “what the Romans ever did for us” – landed.
The King has been brushing up on his Italian accent, and delivered an unexpected number of lines in the language of his hosts – even more, locals noted with satisfaction, than he had managed in German or French during recent visits.
One member of the public, Giorgia Lucenti, who was among the crowd in Ravenna, said: “We thought it was wonderful that King Charles spoke in Italian in the Parliament yesterday. It showed enormous respect.”
More than 50 local news outlets covered it – an essential measure of how an overseas tour has gone down – with 180 pieces on TV and radio, and stations reporting an uplift in audience figures when the King and Queen appeared on screen.”
