When the Princess of Wales touches down in Italy a few hours from now, she will be taking a huge step on her road to recovery.
Making her first official international trip since 2022 and her first since her devastating 2024 cancer diagnosis, she is said to be “enthused and energised” to be back on the road.
But this trip is about far more than a return to royal duties overseas after a hugely challenging period. For those around her, it marks the beginning of a new international chapter in her work.
© POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesAides have made clear that she sees her work to highlight the importance of early childhood development as a global mission going forward and wants it to become a talking point worldwide.
Here in northern Italy, it feels less like a regular return to overseas travel and more like the start of something altogether new for the Princess.
Just as Prince William has taken his case for urgent optimism about the planet—via his Earthshot Prize—across the globe, it seems Kate might soon follow in his footsteps with her own passion project.
© AFP via Getty ImagesIt’s a dazzling turnaround from the last few years, during which she rightly stayed home and focused her energy on her family and her health — the two most important things in life.
So her arrival in Italy this week is not just another overseas trip. It’s a sign of her renewed energy, growing confidence and developing ambition.
And it’s hard to think of another royal with quite the same ability to put an issue on the global agenda.
Arriving back at my hotel a short while ago, the taxi driver asked if I was here for Kate’s visit. His immediate follow-up question: "How is she doing now? Is she better?"
© Getty ImagesWhat struck me speaking to him and others today was the depth of feeling people have for her. For the people of Reggio Emilia, who have put early childhood at the heart of their community, her visit brings well-deserved recognition, but also the opportunity to reach a greater audience than ever before.
And there’s another intriguing layer to this visit. When the Reggio Emilia approach came into being in the early 1990s, it was under the direction of a communist local authority, which wanted high-quality, secular education to be accessible to all children,
The idea that a member of the British royal family should come to shine an international spotlight on this now is ironic, and yet in a traditionally left-wing region of Italy, it’s hard to overstate just how excited people here on the ground are about her visit.
© Getty Images"Kate is the most famous member of the British royal family in Italy," Antonello Guerrera, UK correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, tells me.
"The King is incredibly famous too, but I think she's the most loved because of her origins, she's a commoner. She's not from the lineage of the royal family. This always made her more palatable in a country like Italy, which rejected the royal family a century ago."
He believes that Kate has replaced the late Queen in people’s affection here, even if there is a lot of respect for King Charles, who delighted crowds in Ravenna, a regional neighbour, a year ago.
"Kate has always been, I think, the favorite among Italians. She’s young and glamorous and is a member of the royal family, but she comes from a normal background.
"When she was ill, everyone was so shocked and the empathy was enormous...I felt like, almost on a daily basis, friends and family were asking me, how's Kate, what's going on? Will she get better?"
That fascination was clear on the streets of Reggio Emilia today, where traffic and parking restrictions are in place, schoolchildren from across the city have been prepped for their big moment welcoming her in the city’s main square, local hotels are overflowing and some 150 journalists from around the world have been accredited to cover the visit.
There’s a real sense that the city is bracing itself for a big moment. Meanwhile, Italian fashionistas are waiting with bated breath to see what the Princess will wear for her visit - a piece or two by MaxMara, which was founded in Reggio Emilia in 1951 - would likely go down a storm.
The city’s mayor, Marco Massari, will present her with the “Primo Tricolore” - Reggio Emilia’s highest honour - in recognition of her Early Years work.
"I think it's going to be really mad," says Antonello of the reception that awaits. "She's the favorite one in Italy. So I think it's going to be very difficult for the authorities to contain."
© POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesI’d like to think the Princess is just as excited to be coming here. She clearly has fond memories of her time in Italy more than a quarter of a century ago, when she spent time in Florence during her gap year, and has been discussing her plans with Prince William, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, who will be waiting to hear all about it when she gets back.
It’s not hard to imagine their own joy and pride at seeing her step back onto the international stage after such a difficult period — and at watching her return to a country where she spent some of the happiest and most carefree days of her youth.
And judging by the mood here already, this is going to be quite a visit.
