A Buckingham Palace spokesman said of the trip: “This will be the first state visit, since the Reformation, where the Pope and the monarch will pray together in an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel, and the first time the monarch will have attended a service in St Paul’s Outside the Walls, a church with an historic connection to the English Crown.”
The visit had been due to take place in April but was postponed due to Pope Francis’s ill-health. The King and Queen were instead granted a private audience with him during their state visit to Italy that month, just two weeks before his death.
The couple travelled on the British Government plane from Farnborough airport on Wednesday, touching down at Rome’s Ciampino airport shortly before 6.30pm.
They were formally welcomed by representatives from the Holy See, including Christopher Trott, Ambassador to the Holy See, Dr Anabel Inge, Deputy Head of Mission to the Holy See, Monsignor Javier Domingo Fernández González, Vatican City Head of the Protocol Office, and retired Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Francesco Canalini.
Wearing a feather print silk dress by Fiona Clare and a brown cashmere trench coat by Anna Valentine, the Queen said: “It is a great pleasure to be here.”
The King told Archbishop Canalini: “It is wonderful to be able to come back to Rome.”
