On the third day of a five-day visit to Belgium and Italy, president Mary McAleese yesterday paid a courtesy visit to her Italian counterpart, President Giorgio Napolitano. They met in Rome's Quirinale Palace, today the official residence of the Italian president but until 1870 the home of popes.
The two heads of state had a 30-minute meeting during which they touched on a wide range of interests common to both Italy and Ireland, highlighting above all the fact that this week represents the 50th anniversary of the 1957 signing of the European Union's founding treaty, the Treaty of Rome.
After the meeting, President McAleese was given a guided tour of an art exhibition in the palace, featuring the work of one major artist from each of the EU's members. Ireland is represented by a Jack B. Yeats painting, The Singing Horseman.
Earlier in the day, Mrs McAleese had visited Bobbio in northern Italy, site of a monastery founded in the sixth century by the Irish monk St Columbanus. "I understand there was some talk at one time of formally making St Columbanus the patron saint of the European Union," Mrs McAleese said. "He would indeed be an appropriate choice. His outlook and his whole career took Europe as his arena. He was one of the builders of our civilisation."
Today the President will address the students at the Irish Pontifical College in Rome prior to holding a reception for the Irish community. Tomorrow she will have a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI.