Italy's prime minister Matteo Renzi and Chinese President Xi Jinping were due to meet on the island of Sardinia late Wednesday at an upscale coastal resort near Cagliari.
Xi was scheduled to meet Renzi and dine with him at the luxury Forte Village Resort in Santa Margherita di Pula amid a security lockdown.
Xi was in a stopover visit to Sardinia before heading to Latin America for a three-country tour.
Xi and a delegation of 12 ministers arrived at Cagliari airport at lunchtime on Wednesday from Morocco, where Xi attended the 22nd United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP22) in the city of Marrakech.
Two state highways were closed to traffic and hundreds of police escorted Xi and his entourage to the Forte Village Resort.
Xi later visited the ancient Roman and pre-Roman town of Nora on Wednesday afternoon, accompanied by the Sardinia region's governor Francesco Pigliaru.
Renzi and Xi's meeting is an unofficial one, but the two leaders were likely to mull the outlook for the world economy after the victory of avowed trade protectionist Donald Trump in the US presidential election on 8 November, observers said.
Renzi has made improved trade and investment ties to China one of the priorities of his administration and may look to further strengthening ties with China during his meeting with Xi, according to the observers.
The meeting came the same day that Italy arrested 15 people in five regions and put dozens more under investigation for allegedly aiding illegal immigration and forging documents for mainly Chinese citizens.
