Princess of Wales Heads to Italy Next Week for First Overseas Trip in Over Three Years

The Princess of Wales will travel to Italy next week for her first official overseas engagement in more than three years.

She plans to visit the historic northern city of Reggio Emilia. It will be her first overseas royal trip since cancer treatment. Her last such visit was to Boston in the United States in December 2022, when she accompanied Prince William.

Catherine's solo trip comes on May 13 and 14. She will support her campaign for early childhood education. There, she will conduct fact-finding on the Italian city's distinctive approach to early years learning.

"The princess is very much looking forward to visiting Italy next week," a Kensington Palace spokesman said of her milestone return to international visits.

Catherine will observe first-hand how the Reggio Emilia approach creates environments where nature and loving human relationships support children's development, the spokesman said.

The Italian city is home to a child development philosophy that emphasizes personal relationships, play-based learning and children's own enthusiasms.

After treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, she announced in January 2025 that she was in remission. Catherine has spoken of good days and bad days in her recovery after what she called a "life-changing experience."

Opinion polls show her consistently among the most popular royals. Her latest return is likely to draw great interest, including from newspaper front-page editors.

She has made short trips to France and Jordan, along with private holidays. But this marks the first official overseas visit by the Princess of Wales in almost three and a half years.

The Italian visit will add an international dimension to her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood. She set up the center in 2021 to explore how adult problems like addiction and mental health issues can root in early childhood.

On Wednesday, the center will publish a new guide, Foundations for Life. It serves as a resource for those working with babies, young children and their families. The guide stresses the importance of social and emotional development.

"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," Catherine writes in the foreword. The guide launches at the University of East London.