Jaw dropping footage shows Red Arrows flypast over Rome marking King Charles and Queen Camilla’s state visit to Italy

Jaw dropping footage has captured the Red Arrows flypast over Rome on Tuesday (April 8). The awesome spectacle took place to mark King Charles and Queen Camilla’s state visit to Italy.

The RAF Aerobatic Team was pictured flying above some of the capital city’s most iconic landmarks, including the Presidential Palace and the Colosseum.

The UK’s pilots shared the skies with their Italian counterparts, the Frecce Tricolori, in a rare joint flypast celebrating the strong bilateral relationship between the UK and Italy. The Red Arrows are currently preparing for their new display season, which begins in May, with dozens of shows planned across the UK and mainland Europe.

Charles and Camilla began their day in the Italian capital with a welcome ceremony full of pomp and pageantry hosted by President Sergio Mattarella, and ended at the Colosseum among the many tourists who flock to the historical amphitheatre. School children excitedly shouted “He’s coming, that’s the King!” when the royal convoy was first spotted at the Colosseum, and cheers greeted the couple as they stepped from their state Bentley.

They were also pictured arm in arm after a wreath-laying service at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Altare della Patria, Rome’s large national monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy.

On the four-day state visit, the King and Queen acknowledged the well-wishers in the Colosseum Piazza with a wave before greeting their hosts who included Italy’s culture minister Alessandro Giuli. Charles and Camilla went on a meet and greet with the public, shaking the hands of dozens of pupils from local schools.

The couple met Italian TV presenter and historian Alberto Angela, who spoke about Rome’s history and the Colosseum’s restoration, as they looked at the ruins of the Roman Forum, ancient government buildings close to the amphitheatre. “Still today, it looks impressive,” the King and Queen were told, as they both nodded in agreement. Before they left the King told him the restoration work was “brilliant”, and the Queen said: “It was lovely to be able to see this today.”

Mr Mattarella had earlier hosted a ceremonial welcome at his official residence, the Quirinale Palace, where the King and Queen were escorted into the palace’s quadrangle by mounted Corazzieri Guards and Charles inspected a guard of honour.

Later, the King and Queen attended a reception for the British-Italian community in Rome with Camilla telling guests she enjoyed “any excuse to be in Italy”. The couple met people from across Italian life, from business and the arts to defence and education, over drinks in the garden of Villa Wolkonsky, the residence of Edward Llewellyn, the UK’s ambassador to Rome.

Among the 150 guests was the King’s friend William Blacker, a writer and architectural conservationist who lives in Romania and is the author of Along The Enchanted Way, picked by Charles for his wife’s Queen’s Reading Room book club.

The author was joined by his son, Valentin Palffy, 19, a student in Rome and aspiring actor who first met Charles during a visit to Bucharest when he was 11, and was photographed hugging him. “It was wonderful and a miracle for me to see him again after all these years,” said Palffy. “I’ve always found him an inspiring character since meeting him all those years ago.”