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King Charles and Queen Camilla held a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, where the pontiff congratulated them on their 20th wedding anniversary. Buckingham Palace released a statement indicating that the King and Queen were "delighted the Pope was well enough to host them - and to have had the opportunity to share their best wishes in person".
The meeting took place on the third day of their state visit to Italy and ahead of a state banquet in Rome on Wednesday evening.
It came after previous plans for the couple to meet the pontiff in a state visit to the Vatican were postponed because of the Pope's ill health.
The meeting took place on Wednesday afternoon at the Vatican's Casa Santa Marta, where Pope Francis has been convalescing since being released from Gemelli Hospital.
According to the Vatican, the Pope is showing signs of gradual improvement and he "reciprocated" the King's "best wishes for a speedy recovery of his health".
This was a reference to the Pope offering his own best wishes, after the King recently suffered side effects from his cancer treatment.
There was also an exchange of private gifts between Pope Francis and the royal visitors.
After visiting the Pope, King Charles and Queen Camilla spent their wedding anniversary evening at a state banquet in Rome hosted by the President of Italy Sergio Mattarella.
There were 150 guests at the dinner, including the singer Andrea Bocelli, chef Giorgio Locatelli, hotelier Rocco Forte and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Earlier in the day, at the Italian Parliament, Queen Camilla had worn the same outfit she had worn at her civil wedding ceremony in 2005.
The King's speech at the state banquet, at the Italian presidential palace, touched on a mix of comic and serious themes about the long relationship between the UK and Italy, back to the ancient Romans.
The King warned that "we are living in a very precarious and fragile world" and there was a need to stand up for "values and the liberty we hold so dear".
He welcomed that the UK and Italy "stood by Ukraine in her hour of need", but warned that images of wars were now reverberating across the continent.
