Exiled Italian Royal Family Makes Lightning Visit to Homeland

The son of Italy’s last king returned briefly to his homeland and met with Pope John Paul II on Monday, ending half a century of exile imposed after World War II as punishment for his family’s support of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

“I came back to Rome after 56 years, and I have no words to describe my emotions in this moment,” said Victor Emmanuel before the end of his one-day visit. “We have seen the Colosseum.... We haven’t been to the Pantheon -- there was no time -- but we will have occasions to do that. Rome is a marvelous city. I remembered it like that, even if I was very young when I was forced to leave.”

Victor Emmanuel, 65, who is under treatment for a back injury suffered in a recent motor rally accident in Egypt, said he and his family would return early next year.

“This time, we wanted to come before Christmas to visit his holiness, but we’ll be back when my health is better,” he said before returning to Switzerland, where the Savoy family has been living.

Victor Emmanuel was accompanied by his wife, Marina Doria, and their son, Emmanuel Filiberto, 30, a financial consultant who was born and raised in Switzerland.

A constitutional amendment took effect in November that lifted a ban against the presence in Italy of male descendants of the last king, Umberto II, who reigned for just one month in 1946. The European Court of Human Rights had pushed Italy to allow the Savoy heirs to return as ordinary citizens.

The decision to let the Savoys return “is an indication of the strength of our republic,” said Franco Pavoncello, a political scientist at John Cabot University in Rome. “The issue of the king and the royal house in Italy is an issue that is now relegated to the history books.”

Umberto II’s father, King Victor Emmanuel III, was largely a figurehead monarch during Mussolini’s rule. But he is remembered for having signed into law in 1938 infamous anti-Jewish measures that later led to the murders of thousands of Italian Jews in Nazi death camps. After the 1943 fall of Mussolini, the Savoys fled Italy, an act seen by many as abandonment of the country while it fell under German occupation.

After the war, many regarded the royal house as partly to blame for the country’s devastation. But a strong pro-monarchy movement also raised fears of destabilization of Italy’s young democracy.

In a 1946 referendum, Italians voted in favor of a republic rather than a monarchy. The ban against the Savoys was then imposed partly to ensure they could play no future political role.

Not all have forgiven the family its wartime deeds.

“I think history told us what kind of people they are,” said Sergio Cesarini, a Rome gardener.

“I feel sorry for the son, but Victor Emmanuel himself shouldn’t be allowed into the country. The reasons are written in our Italian history.”

Victor Emmanuel expressed enthusiasm Monday for playing the role of tourist in the future.

“I’ll start to visit the whole of Italy with my son, who doesn’t know it,” he said.

“Seeing how well we’ve been received, it will be a great pleasure to be among you all again. I want to go to Naples, and then we will go to Venice and visit all the other parts of Italy like someone who doesn’t know the country.”

The House of Savoy, once a duchy in southeastern France, traces its history to Umberto the White Handed, the 11th century ruler of an area that controlled the main road linking France and Italy. Family members played a key role in uniting Italy as a country in the 19th century, and the Pantheon, an ancient Roman monument, was used for their tombs.

Emmanuel Filiberto said that for him, coming to Rome was “something magical.”

The family met for 20 minutes with John Paul, exchanging Christmas greetings and gifts. Each of the Savoys bowed to the pontiff and kissed his hand. Victor Emmanuel gave John Paul a book on the House of Savoy, while the pope gave each of them a rosary.

There is now only a very weak monarchical movement in Italy, but on Monday one of its leaders, Sergio Boschiero, national secretary of the Italian Monarchist Union, described the ban as “a negative chapter in history” and said he is “happy that the persecution has ended.”

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Holley reported from Moscow and De Cristofaro from Rome.