Kate surprises fans by placing her pristine handbag on floor in Italy,
The Princess of Wales surprised fans and etiquette experts as she stepped out for her first foreign solo visit in more than three years yesterday.
Catherine, 44, was given a rapturous welcome by a crowd of 1,000 people as she arrived for a two-day trip to the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia to boost her crusade for improving young lives.
Dressed in an elegant blue Edeline Lee trouser suit, the caring princess delighted well-wishers by greeting them with ‘Mi chiamo Catarina’ and bent down to hug the excited schoolchildren and pose for pictures with them.
Yet as she lowered herself to be at the youngsters’ eye level, Kate also placed her Asprey powder blue handbag on the floor of the Piazza Camillo Prampolini, outside of the town hall.
The lavish sky blue handbag retails at £3,995 and perfectly complemented her suit which had a subtle nod to Italian history and culture.
Yet for many etiquette experts, placing the handbag on the floor could be considered a mild etiquette faux pas – with the act seen as bad luck, dirty or disorganised.
When the princess moved on to her second engagement at the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre, she perhaps noted her brief mishap and instead ditched the handbag to clutch a large bouquet of striking flowers.
The handbag dilemma is certainly not an unusual issue for royal women – with Queen Camilla facing the same qualm just two weeks prior during her US state visit with King Charles.
The Princess of Wales suffered a brief etiquette faux pas as she stepped out for her first foreign solo visit since 2022 yesterday
As she lowered herself to be at the youngsters’ eye level, Kate also placed her Asprey powder blue handbag on the floor of the Piazza Camillo Prampolini, outside of the town hall
Ahead of the monarch’s speech at US Congress, Her Majesty was spotted placing the handbag on the floor to keep it out of sight of the cameras – prompting etiquette experts to call the decision an ‘oversight’ by the Queen.
Etiquette coach Alison M Cheperdak told Fox News that the moment was a ‘game-time decision’ for the Queen, who had to make a quick choice about how best to handle the handbag dilemma.
Meanwhile, the late Queen Elizabeth II was famous for never placing her handbag on the floor in light of such etiquette rule.
Kate’s visit to northern Italy yesterday held vast significance – marking the first overseas official trip for the princess since she went to Denmark in 2022, before her cancer treatment.
Her first engagement was in the city’s town hall where she met the mayor. Outside, she spent 15 minutes meeting fans who had travelled to see her.
Inside the town hall, the princess was awarded the Primo Tricolore, the city’s highest honour.
In the main chamber, the ‘Sala del Tricolore’ which was adorned with Italian flags, the princess posed for a photograph with the mayor, Marco Massari, and Salvatore Angieri, Prefect of Reggio Emilia, before a short ceremony in which the mayor read out her credentials in the early years sector.
After hearing the translated version, the princess put her hand on her heart and said: ‘Wow, what an honour. I’m very grateful, it’s very gratefully accepted.’
The mayor went on to explain the history of the chamber, speaking in simplified Italian as the Princess recognised some words (‘molto’…’historia’… ‘importante’) and exclaimed in English in response: ‘Oh really! I can imagine!… So much history…’
She then spent half an hour sitting down with local ‘nonnas’ – Carla Nironi, Iona Bartoli, and Eletta Bertani – who told her of their work to spread the Reggio Emilia method of early years education through the community.
When the princess moved on to her second engagement at the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre, she perhaps noted her faux pas and instead ditched the handbag to clutch a large bouquet of striking flowers
The princess, who was greeted with whoops and shouts of ‘bellissima’ and ‘kate!’, launched herself into a walkabout, where people had been waiting up to five hours to see her (pictured accepting a gift from one well-wisher)
After signing the visitors’ book, she stepped out into the square in into a walkabout – which the Italians call a ‘crowd bath’.
The princess, who was greeted with whoops and shouts of ‘bellissima’ and ‘Kate!’, launched herself into a walkabout, where people had been waiting up to five hours to see her.
She was heard to tell the mayor that the warm welcome had left her ’emotional, seeing everyone’. ‘Aww, thank you,’ she told him, putting her hand on her heart and looking around.
Kate then paid a visit to the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre where she showed her incredible versatility with an immersive clay workshop.
As her final engagement of the day, the princess visited Scuola Comunale d’infanzia Anna Frank, a municipal pre-school for three to six-year-olds.
She took part in a creative session with the young children, while also joining both the pupils and parents in a classroom to discuss the impact of the Reggio Emilia approach on the school’s wider community.
As her final engagement of the day, the princess visited Scuola Comunale d’infanzia Anna Frank, a municipal pre-school for three to six-year-olds. Heartwarming pictures captured the empathetic princess cuddling youngsters during the visit
Heartwarming pictures captured the empathetic princess cuddling youngsters during the visit, with royal fans praising Kate for her tender nature.
Prior to Kate’s arrival, palace aides said that the foreign trip was a ‘huge moment’ for the princess, whose last solo visit abroad was to Denmark in 2022.
One source said: ‘She’s looking forward to being here, she’s energised, she’s enthused, she’s excited to see Reggio Emilia in action and meet the people here too. This is a global mission’.
As she begins a phased return to royal duties, aides have remarked that there is a different pace to her work with one saying she is ‘taking it up a gear’.
Although the future queen began a slow and measured return to public nine months after her treatment – she was officially in remission in January 2025 – this is her first overseas work trip.
The visit will highlight the origins of the world-renowned ‘Reggio Emilia approach’ to ‘child-led’ early years education, which is similar to Montessori.
Following the Second World War, residents – many of them women – financed some of Italy’s inaugural nursery schools by selling scrap metal salvaged from equipment left behind by retreating German forces.
These pioneering efforts laid the groundwork for the educational philosophy, which is now influential worldwide and aligns closely with Catherine’s focus on children’s social and emotional wellbeing.
