Princess of Wales to Travel to Italy for First Official Overseas Visit Since Cancer Remission

The Princess of Wales is scheduled to travel to Italy next week for a solo working trip with the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, marking her first official overseas visit since announcing her cancer remission at the start of 2025. She will spend two days in the city of Reggio Emilia in northern Italy from May 13-14, learning about the Reggio Emilia Approach, an educational philosophy that emphasizes children's potential for self-development through nurturing environments and loving relationships.

A Kensington Palace spokesperson said the princess is very much looking forward to visiting Italy next week and seeing first-hand how the Reggio Emilia approach creates environments where nature and loving human relationships come together to support children’s development.

The trip represents a milestone in the princess's return to international engagements after her diagnosis with an undisclosed form of cancer early in 2024, for which she underwent chemotherapy. She announced she was in remission 16 months ago in January 2025, gradually resuming royal duties that included joining the royal family in April to mark the 100th anniversary of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s birth.

Palace aides described the visit as an important moment in the expansion of the Centre for Early Childhood’s work on a global stage, connecting the Shaping Us Framework with leading international approaches to highlight how early years experiences, through the natural world and human connection, lay foundations for a resilient future.

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood was founded by the Princess of Wales in 2021 to raise awareness of the importance of early years experiences in shaping society over the long term and to commission research. The announcement of the Italy trip coincided with her visit to the University of East London on Wednesday for the launch of the centre’s new 109-page Foundations for Life guide, a social and emotional development resource aimed at practitioners and volunteers working with babies, young children, and their families.

In the foreword, the princess wrote that the quality of our connections—with ourselves, with others and with the world around us—shapes how safe we feel, how we relate, and how we process experiences throughout our lives.

This will be the princess's first extended official foreign engagement in nearly three-and-a-half years. Her last official overseas visit occurred in December 2022, when she accompanied the Prince of Wales to Boston, USA, for the Earthshot Prize awards, where the Waleses spent three days.

Their last major lengthy tour together was the trip to the Caribbean in March 2022 to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee.

She made brief trips to Marseille, France, for the Rugby World Cup in autumn 2023, and attended the Crown Prince of Jordan’s wedding in Amman in June 2023, but the royal household did not classify these as official foreign tours. ” The princess has spoken about the good days and bad days during her recovery, describing the experience as life-changing.

The Prince of Wales is expected to travel to the US for the Fifa World Cup in July, coinciding with commemorations marking the 250th anniversary of American independence.

It is not yet known whether the princess will join him, but her return to foreign tours follows in the footsteps of the King’s high-profile US state visit to see President Trump last week. On Tuesday, the Prince of Wales was with farmers in North Yorkshire to hear about how they were diversifying their revenue streams in the face of financial uncertainty.

There, he met Adam Hunter, 37, and his wife Leanne, who run Crow Tree Farm in Swaledale.

” Hunter replied, “Uncertain. ” The prince then inquired, “How easy is it for you to diversify? ” Hunter responded, “It’s tricky.