Kate and William are set for their first royal tour as the Prince and Princess of Wales next spring.
The prince and princess will make a high-profile visit to Rome in the spring, which will mark the couple's first visit to Italy.
This will also be Kate's first working trip abroad in over a year, having last worked abroad in Boston during the Earthshot Prize Awards in December 2022.
The Mail has reported that a date for the tour has been "pencilled in", while Kensington Palace has not yet officially announced the trip.
Kate and William set for their first royal tour as Prince and Princess of Wales next spring
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As Kate and William will be in Rome, they could make their first visit to see the Pope as a couple.
Many other members of the Royal Family, including King Charles and Queen Camilla, have greeted the Pope at the Vatican.
The King and Queen met Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 and Pope Francis later in 2017.
The tour will also mark Kate and William's first trip on behalf of the Government as the new Princess and Princess of Wales.
Princess Kate and Prince William at the Earthshot Prize Awards in Boston last year
PAAlthough they held these titles during their trip to Boston in 2022, this visit was not made on behalf of the Government, as it was for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, a personal initiative.
The publication reported that negotiations around Kate and William meeting Pope Francis are "very much on the table" and "nothing has been decided yet".
A source claimed that a possible meeting between the Pope and the Waleses is yet to be discussed at the embassy level.
Princess Kate and Prince William on tour in Jamaica last year
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King Charles meeting Pope Benedict with Queen Camilla in 2009
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A spokesperson for Kensington Palace said: "We look forward to announcing the Prince and Princess’s travel plans in due course."
The couple's last official Government trip to the Caribbean in March 2022 was troubled by many PR problems.
A protest over indigenous land was organised by Belizean villagers during the visit, and discussions about whether the tour had an excessively "colonial" tone took place in Jamaica.
