The King has joked about living “long enough” to see a tree he planted grow as he began the final day of his Italian state visit. Charles was in a jovial mood as he gave a sapling a start in life in the gardens of Villa Wolkonsky, the UK ambassador’s residence in Rome where the King and Queen had been staying.
After performing his personal ritual of waving the spade in the air once he had shovelled soil around the roots, the King turned to British embassy staff gathered on the lawns. He quipped: “Well I do hope that I shall live long enough to see a little bit of growth in the tree.” As the assembled crowd clapped and cheered, Charles, who is receiving ongoing treatment for cancer, said “one more”, in reference to the sapling.
Charles then unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion, before pointing at the newly planted tree and saying: “Needs a bit of water.” He spent a few minutes chatting to staff and their families, and joked: “Oh dear, is there anybody left in the office?”
Earlier, the King spent 20 minutes speaking to representatives from the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA), established by Charles, which aims to speed up the world’s transition to a nature-first circular bioeconomy. Charles, who has spent much of his life highlighting environmental challenges, met three groups in the gardens of the villa, each representing a project related to the work of the CBA.
The first focused on “the importance of nature for human health and wellbeing” and the King asked if they had found new treatments based in nature. He then moved on to the second group which focused on “invasive species and conservation” before heading over to meet experts in “urban forests and global change” who demonstrated scientific equipment and how it is being used to measure the impact of climate change and related risks on trees.
As he was leaving to travel to the city of Ravenna with the Queen, he thanked staff for their hospitality during their three nights at the villa: “Thank you all so much for all your help, marvellous”.
Later as the royal couple arrived in Ravenna, they were welcomed by cheering crowds. They visited the tomb of the legendary medieval Italian poet, Dante – the “father of the Italian language” – watching a reading of his most famous work the “Divine Comedy”.
Arriving at the Piazza San Francesco, where hundreds of well wishers had waited for hours to see them, Charles and Camilla, wearing the same cream Anna Valentine outfit she wore in their anniversary portraits this week, accessorised with a brooch by the Italian designer Lucia Odescalchi, were met by the acting mayor of Ravenna, Fabio Sbaraglia, president of Emilia-Romagna, Michele de Pascale, and president of the province of Ravenna, Valentina Palli.
As they walked past cheering crowds, waving and stopping to shake hands with some of the crowd who shouted “Bienvenuto Maestro!” a local band and school choir performed.
Still accompanied by foreign secretary David Lammy and the ambassador, Lord Llewellyn, they were then shown Dante’s tomb, by the Dante expert and artistic director of the Teatro delle Albe, Silvia Pagliano, who gave them some background on the reading they were about to hear – XXXIII Paradise, the closing canto of the “Divine Comedy”.
They then watched an “interactive performance” of the poet by actress and co-founder of the Teatro delle Albe, Ermanna Montanari, before viewing the inside of the tomb where they spent a few minutes.
Born and raised in Florence, but exiled because of his political beliefs, Dante spent the rest of his life in Ravenna, where he died in 1321. He set a precedent by using the local dialect, which ultimately became the standard for Italy’s national language, uniting the country’s diverse regions and dialects. His Divine Comedy – a vision of the afterlife – is considered a masterpiece. Since September 2020, the Dante Museum in Ravenna has organised a daily reading of a canto from the Divine Comedy to celebrate the 700th anniversary of his death.
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