France's president, Emmanuel Macron,will attend a funeral service on Tuesday at the parliament in Rome for Italy's emeritus president, Giorgio Napolitano, who died last week aged 98.
The lay funeral service will take place at the Chamber of Deputies at 11.30 am. The service will also be attended by top Italy's office bearers including president, Sergio Mattarella, the speaker of the Senate, Ignazio La Russa, lower house speaker, Lorenzo Fontana, and European Union economy commissioner and former premier, Paolo Gentiloni.
Pope Francis paid his respects before Napolitano's coffin on Sunday at the Senate's chapel of rest - the first time a pontiff has entered Italy's upper house of parliament.
Napolitano died on Friday after being treated in a Rome hospital for two weeks.
The only former communist to serve as Italy's head of state, Napolitano was president from 2006 to 2015. He was the first person whom the parliament elected twice to the seven-year post.
Napolitano stood down in 2013 aged 89, citing his advancing age.
Supporters praised the balanced attitude of Napolitano, who steered the country though a debt crisis in 2011 and two political crises.
