State visit to Italy and Vatican City: full agenda

It won't be a candy trip, the state visit to Italy and Vatican, which begins Tuesday, June 20. In three and a half days, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, accompanied by a forty-strong Dutch press group and a hefty economic mission, travel north, south and center, as well as the Vatican.

Rome.

Tuesday is mainly a day with mandatory numbers. Reception by fellow head of state President Mattarella, with his daughter Laura as First Lady, then a working lunch with Prime Minister Gentiloni, meetings with the Presidents of the Senate and Chamber, Pietro Grasso and Laura Boldrini, and finally with the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Rages. In any case, that last visit provides a nice picture from the mayor's office, which offers the best view of Rome with a view of the Roman Forum.

In the evening there is a state dinner offered by the president in the Quirinal, the presidential palace, to which the Netherlands will respond the following evening with a so-called counter-performance. That is usually, and this time for sure, a cultural tour de force, with a concert by violinist Janine Jansen in the stylish Palazzo Colonna, which still houses the scions of this millennial Roman patrician family.

The Quirinal, the presidential palace in Rome (photo: Wikimedia)

Palermo

Earlier in the day, the Dutch column already Palermo visited. Important, because Italy is more than just the north and the center, and it's good that the Italians know that the Netherlands realizes that. Moreover, Palermo is an important point of contact, especially for the judiciary and the police: it is here that magistrates who, through decades of experience with the mafia, have devised methods of combating the mafia that are now useful in the fight against people smugglers and traffickers.

Moreover, Palermo is a primary reception point for African migrants in particular. As a result, discussions are scheduled with magistrates and police officers as well as with aid workers and migrants themselves. The latter takes place in MoltiVolti, an experimental 'coworking station' annex restaurant in the working-class district of Ballarò, where mainly migrants work. And of course there is also room for a (short) cultural program, which also includes the beautiful Norman-Arabic-Byzantine Cappella Palatina in the Palazzo dei Normanni.

Frisian Church

The third day begins in the Frisian Church, less than a hundred meters from St. Peter's Square, just outside Bernini's colonnade. At the end of the eighth century, pilgrims from what was then Friesland (which then ran from present-day Flanders to Denmark) gathered in this church, which is one of the oldest bell towers in Rome. Even now, the relatively modest house of worship has been the church of the Dutch (Catholic) community in Rome for years, so this visit is a fitting prelude to the audience with Pope Francis and then with the second man inside the Vatican, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Return of the Commanding Staff

The last part of the Vatican program is completely outside the usual diplomatic routine. It concerns the presentation by the superior general of the Jesuits to the king of the 'baton of William of Orange'. It concerns a staff of command that the (Catholic) Spaniards captured from the defeated (Protestant) Dutch insurgents at the Battle of the Mookerheide in 1574. After so many centuries, this restitution (on loan, but still) is a nice gesture of reconciliation, all the more so since the staff most likely came from a distant relative of the king: Lodewijk van Nassau, the brother of William of Orange.

Milan

In the afternoon we continue to Milan, where Mayor Sala receives the royal couple and entourage against the beautiful setting of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. This is followed by lighter parts: a visit to food temple Eataly Smeraldo, where a Dutch and an Italian top chef hold a 'show cooking' for about twenty Italian gastronomic journalists.

And then, under the motto 'Sport unites. Always and everywhere' on the Domplein a football clinic presented by Clarence Seedorf, with local young talents. Finally, in the Palazzo Reale, the former Royal Palace next to the Dom, a Holland Trade Dinner with more than 130 participants from 90 Dutch companies and institutions in the economic mission.

Economy

The last day, June 23, is mainly devoted to the economic part of the visit. First thing in the morning is the Galleria Rossana Orlandi: thanks to this Milanese design icon, several Dutch designers, who are also there themselves, have found their way to the Italian and international market.

Afterwards, the members of the economic mission will present the latest innovations in the field of water management, environmentally-friendly fashion and digitization of cultural heritage in the La Triennale design museum. To show that it is not just words, under the watchful eye of the royal couple a series of contracts, agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (In italian: Protocolli d'Intesa) signed, including one between the province of South Holland and the region Lombardy.

Early in the afternoon, the couple returns from the state visit to Italy and the staff in Rome and Milan can finally rest. It promises to be a grueling week, also because temperatures of between 34 and 36 degrees are predicted! 

Photo king and queen: RVD / Koos Breukel