German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier will on Thursday begin a two-day official visit to Italy at the invitation of head of state Sergio Mattarella, who made a state visit to Germany in January.
Steinmeier will hold talks with Mattarella at the Quirinale Palace in Rome, where he will be greeted with a full honour guard. The Italian and German presidents will hold a joint press conference after their meeting.
Steinmeier will lunch with Italy's prime minister Giuseppe Conte before debating with Italian artists and writers over their visions of Italy and Europe during an encounter at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History (a German research institute in Rome).
After meetings at the Italian Senate with speaker Maria Elizabetta Casellati and at the lower house of parliament with its speaker Roberto Fico, Steinmeier and his wife will be Mattarella's guests at a state dinner at the Quirinale.
On Friday, Steinmeier, who is well known for his environmentalism, will travel to Naples by train. At the city's Goethe Institute he will meet young Italian students of German who want to work in Germany, as well as Italians who have lived and worked there.
After lunch at Villa Rosebery, the Italian president's official residence in the upscale suburb of Posillipo, Mattarella will meet artists and young musicians in the historic centre and listen to a concert, before flying back to Naples.