Death Elizabeth. The days of Charles in Rome in 1985 and the stage of Diana at the Child Jesus

It is April 26, 1985. A young Charles, now King Charles III, arrives in Rome. The official visit of the then prince, with Princess Diana, to Italy has been underway for days. After various stages, from Sardinia to Milan and Florence, it is his turn to the capital. Four intense days made of meetings (with the President of the Senate Francesco Cossiga, and of the Chamber Nilde Jotti) and institutional breakfasts (with the Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and the President of the Republic Sandro Pertini), of more private moments such as the audience with the Pope , John Paul II, or social like the lunch at the hunting club. One of the few moments in which the couple separates is when Lady Diana visits the Bambino Gesù pediatric hospital in Rome. He in the Senate and in the Chamber, she among the little patients of the structure of the Holy See. “It was a practice”, Duchess Maria Grazia Salviati reminds Adnkronos Salute, who is still today on the board of directors of the hospital as heir to the family that founded the Child Jesus. “Tradition had it that, during the visit of royal or presidential, wives went to visit a hospital and in Rome they often came to visit the Child Jesus, because it was the children’s hospital, and the Pope’s hospital. Diana was very successful, she was very good with hospitalized children and their mothers, very human , close to the sick. I have this memory of her, beautiful woman, with a black hat “and a white jacket. “I was a little further back, she walked alongside the president of the hospital, the Marquis Marcello Sacchetti. They were in tune, he explained to her in English about the patients, the ward. It’s been a long time. But I remember that she liked it. all for his human warmth. “It was not the only meeting between Duchess Salviati and a member of the royal family. Charles saw him not on the occasion of his Roman days, but in Tuscany. “Once he came for a lunch, our guest at the Migliarino estate”, in the province of Pisa, he says. “He was alone. He was in Florence for a period of several days with the Marquis Frescobaldi, because he painted, he liked painting a lot. I have a photo album of when he came here. A very pleasant person. I remember the Roman-style artichokes, he ate several, He appreciated them. At that time we were talking about his vegetarian diet “, remembers the Duchess. In the past, the Salviati also hosted the Queen Mother for a week and the Duchess remembers “her delightful ways, her curiosity”. With Queen Elizabeth, however, there were a couple of meetings “in England”. Salviati today expresses “sadness for his death. What a great character – he observes – Everyone talks about him with great respect, all over the world. She had a difficult and demanding life. I remember her arriving smiling with her dogs, in the countryside, yes he saw that she was very fond of them. It’s sad this loss, but she had a long life, and I found the funeral she did for her husband “with whom she shared long years,” really moving. She probably went away quietly, and this is important “.