Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness,

I would like, first of all, to bid you and Prince Philip a very warm welcome to Italy. I know that I am voicing the deepest sentiments of the Italian people in welcoming your Majesty in a spirit of great friendship on your third State visit to Italy.

My wife and I have been eagerly looking forward to your visit to Rome, recalling the happy occasion of the luncheon given at Buckingham Palace a few months ago. This visit further strengthens the friendship that unites our two countries and sets it on the way to meeting new challenges.

For centuries our two civilizations and cultures have engaged in continuous dialogue, exchanging ideas and values through which we have contributed towards defining the identity of what I consider to be our ideal common homeland: Europe.

An Italian of my generation, who has lived with a passion for civilized values through some of the most tragic, but also the happy and creative moments of the 20th century, cannot fail to recall the years in which it fell to the United Kingdom to keep the flame of freedom alight in Europe.

Almost fifty years have passed since that 6 February 1952 on which you became Queen and Head of the Commonwealth, as the forty-second Sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. You were a young woman when you took upon yourself the responsibility of one of the world's most ancient institutions of government. The trials endured during the war years, when the Royal Family shared the dangers facing the people of London, had prepared you to take on your tasks with a deep sense of duty. Above all you had the outstanding example set by your august parents. On the happy occasion of the 100th birthday of Her Majesty The Queen Mother, all of us felt particularly close to her and shared the great affection in which your people hold her.

The pleasure of these reminiscences takes us even further back to a long distant past.

Rome in all its grandeur, the mentor of civilization, and the founder of the first Empire to be based on the rule of law, was no stranger to the values on which the British Empire drew for inspiration in the course of its glorious history.

During the enlightened centuries of Humanism and the Renaissance, the call to creativity of the genius of Italy that ushered in a new age in European civilization, received a resounding response in the genius of Shakespeare's England.

Italy with her Maritime Republics, with Christopher Columbus who opened up the paths of the world to Europe, was the forerunner of the maritime vocation and destinies of your own people.

Liberal 19th century England, drawing on the strength of its extraordinary parliamentary tradition, was particularly supportive of Italy during the Risorgimento, helping the Italian people make their dreams of unity and freedom come true.

These vivid, evocative memories make our dialogue particularly fruitful both bilaterally and in Europe. Our common desire for cooperation is fuelling exciting economic, scientific and technological projects. The frequent Italo-British cultural events attract the unreserved interest of our people.

Our cooperation is a precious asset, which gives substance and vigour to our friendship. It has taken shape in Europe, the Atlantic Alliance and through the management of the great international crises. Our common commitment in the Balkans has been, and remains, decisive to the stability of that region. Italian and British troops are operating together in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo, striving with our allies and friends towards a common goal. We are committed, side-by-side, to setting up a European military force.

The prophetic visions of such men as Konrad Adenauer, Winston Churchill, Alcide De Gasperi and Robert Schuman have become a reality in the European Union and in the Atlantic Alliance which have become, through decades of hard trial, the foundation stones of a new free, democratic and united Europe.

We are moving forward along this path together. The stars are guiding us to a common goal; the conviction that Europe, if united, counts for more in the world, keeps us on a steady course.

I am confident that in the challenges that lie immediately ahead of us, the United Kingdom and Italy will aim at achieving high profile solutions in Europe: by strengthening its institutions and consolidating its identity; by remaining a driving force in the modernization of the economy.

Your Majesty,

In a speech you delivered to the Australian parliament in 1954 you said that you would not only rule but serve in the sight of God. Because this, as you yourself said, was not only the tradition of your family but the modern characteristic of the British Crown. I myself can find no better words to define the duties of a ruler.

Ruling in this spirit is an arduous task, to which the governments of all the ancient states of Europe are committed today, in order to give their united peoples that prosperity and that positive influence on world peace which would no longer be possible if they remained divided.

Within the European Union, the Atlantic Alliance, the G8 and the United Nations, Italy and the United Kingdom will continue jointly to make their contribution to preventing conflicts, strengthening stability, spreading representative democracy, eradicating poverty and combating organized crime.

And they will do so with the steadfast determination to make ever stronger and clearer their common commitment to making Europe a model of progress, civilization and peace.

In a spirit of deep friendship, I wish to propose a toast to the personal happiness of Your Majesty and Your Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh, to the bonds that unite the United Kingdom and Italy, and to the prosperity of the nations who see in you, Your Majesty, the symbol of ancient and ever-renewed values of civilization.