King Charles and Queen Camilla announce major royal tour as monarch makes 'lost time' vow

After the King and Queen's fraught trip to Australia and Samoa for a Commonwealth Heads of State meeting, the royals are planning to visit Rome in 2025

The King and Queen will visit Italy for their first major tour of 2025, as Charles sets his sights on “making up for lost time”.

The royal duo are planning a trip to Rome and hope to schedule an audience with the Pope at the Vatican. They will be travelling on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, representing the UK with a schedule designed to further the relationship between the two countries in a post-Brexit world.

Buckingham Palace last week announced following the royals’ successful tour of Australia and Samoa that the King is set to return to a “full programme” next year.

Despite his ongoing cancer treatment, the monarch has been given the green light by royal doctors to start planning for the future, which has given him a huge boost.

Palace sources said the King will embark on a high-profile tour in the spring as well as a major royal tour in the autumn. All options would be subject to sign off by doctors at the time but palace officials say Charles is excited about the future plans. The tour could include a meeting between the King and Pope Francis, who at 87 has been head of the Catholic Church since 2013.

A royal source said: “The King is raring to go and incredibly positive about making plans for the future. Although in the early stages, a visit to Italy would provide a fantastic opportunity for the King and Queen to represent the UK and take in some of the incredible sites of one of our closest neighbours.” Another royal insider said the monarch was “keen to make up for lost time” given his ailments this year.

Charles, who turns 76 on November 14, spent three nights in hospital in January for a procedure on an enlarged prostate. Days later, he was told he had a form of cancer. The sovereign has been having weekly treatment ever since, although he was deemed well enough to take a two-week break in order to travel to Australia and Samoa as part of his autumn tour with the Queen and attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting last month.

The Prince and Princess of Wales were scheduled to travel to Italy on behalf of the government last March, but that was shelved when Kate was also diagnosed with cancer. The Princess has been recovering mainly at home and in September announced she had finished her chemotherapy treatment. Royal sources suggest Kate, 42, is still focusing on her recovery and was unlikely to begin official duties in earnest until the new year.

Prince William, meanwhile, travels to Cape Town alone next week for the fourth instalment of his Earthshot Prize environmental project.

Queen Elizabeth II made five trips to Italy, her first when she was a newly married princess in 1951 and the last in 2014. She regularly met the Pope, as well as a succession of presidents, and visited key cultural sites.

The King and Queen, then known as the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, last made an official visit to Italy in 2017. They spent six days in Florence, Rome, Naples and the Vatican, coined as a “ Brexit tour” to smooth European-UK relations in the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the EU.

They couple also met Pope Francis and gave him some home-grown produce from the King’s Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire. As they left a private audience, the Pope was heard to tell Prince Charles: “Wherever you go, may you be a man of peace.” Charles then replied: “I’ll do my best.”

The Mirror can also reveal that plans for the King and Queen to visit Canada, one of the major British realms, have been put on hold due to next year’s elections in the country. Royal sources suggested a spring tour for 2026 could be a possibility.

Buckingham Palace said any travel plans for the King and Queen would be confirmed in due course.