Prime Minister
Giorgia Meloni in the Vatican with her family
, her daughter Ginevra and her partner Andrea Giambruno, for the meeting with Pope Francis.
The face-to-face between the Pope and the Prime Minister lasted 35 minutes.
To welcome Giorgia Meloni in the courtyard of San Damaso, where the Swiss guards were lined up in the honor guard, was the regent of the papal household, Father Leonardo Sapienza.
Also waiting for her, before the scheduled meeting with the Pope, was the Italian ambassador to the Holy See, Francesco Di Nitto.
Meloni gave the Pope a copy of "The Holy Mass explained to children" by Maria Montessori, from 1955, a small volume containing "The Canticle of the Creatures" and "The Little Flowers" by Saint Francis of Assisi, from 1920 and an angel from his private collection.
Instead, the Pontiff gave Meloni a bronze work entitled "Social Love", depicting a child who helps another to get up, with the inscription "Amare Help".
Pope Francis also gave the premier some documents: this year's Message for Peace, the Document on Human Fraternity, the book on the Statio Orbis of 27 March 2020, the volume on the Pontifical Apartment and the book "An Encyclical on peace in Ukraine".
At 12:00 the premier will meet the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishida, at Palazzo Chigi.
Press releases are expected at the end of the visit.
The Council of Ministers will be held in the late afternoon, at 18.30.
