Play Brightcove videoThe King and Queen’s final stop in Italy is Ravenna. ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship has been following the royal tour
Since the end of the Second World War, the British flag has been flown inside the town hall in Ravenna and the Canadian flag.
They do it because 80 years ago today, this province in northwest Italy was liberated from fascism by British and Canadian forces.
It was just weeks before VE day was declared and the vicious regimes in Rome and Berlin were starting to fall.
The King and Queen greeting Royal fans. Credit: PA
So, to mark the day of the liberation of Ravenna province in 1945, King Charles and Queen Camilla’s state visit moves to this corner of Italy after three days in the capital.
Ravenna is a town made famous by the poet Dante, considered to be the ‘father’ of the Italian language.
His tomb is here and it was the first stop for the King and Queen after arriving in the town and they are attending a reading of the closing canto of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’.
The moment of remembrance for the liberation of this region takes place at Ravenna Town Hall and, as King of both the UK and Canada, Charles will honour those Allied forces who, along with the Italian Resistance, freed this part of Italy from tyranny.
“We are still grateful for their sacrifice,” the Governor of Emilia-Romagna, Michele de Pascale, told ITV News when asked about why they still fly the Union flag here.
Then the King and Queen will stand on the same balcony that the Italian resistance used to celebrate Ravenna’s liberation.
The Italian president will be with them and large crowds have been gathering in the town square, and all around central Ravenna, since early this morning.
The King and Queen pose for a photo. Credit: PA
At the end of the Second World War, the Romagna region was on the frontline between the summer of 1943 and the spring of 1944, with contingents from twenty-six nations facing German Forces, including those from this region who had joined the various resistance groups.
Charles and Camilla are meeting Stefano Pagani, a 102-year-old veteran of the Partisans.
Signor Pagani was born in 1922 and joined the region’s partisans during the war.
This is the final day of the state visit to Italy, and although the other state visit, to the Vatican, had to be cancelled because of the Pope’s poor health, the King and Queen did get invited to a private audience with him on Wednesday.
They met him at the house in Vatican City where Pope Francis is spending his two-month convalescence, which his doctors ordered after his treatment in hospital for double pneumonia.
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This is the Talking Royals – our weekly podcast about the royal family, with ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship and Producer Lizzie Robinson