The male heirs to Italy's deposed royal family brought more than half a century of exile to a close yesterday with a one-day visit to Rome for an audience with the Pope.
Victor Emmanuel, aged 64, accompanied by his wife, Marina Doria, and his son, Emmanuel Filiberto, 30, took advantage of last month's lifting of the constitutional ban on the return of the male descendants of the Savoy family to set foot in Italy for the first time for 56 years.
His lightning visit caught Italian journalists on the hop and ruffled diplomatic feathers, since his true destination was the tiny Vatican state rather than the republic his father, King Umberto II, left in disgrace in 1946.
Dressed in a dark suit and black tie, Victor Emmanuel stooped to kiss the Pope's ring at the start of their brief meeting in the Vatican.
The Pope and the ex-royals exchanged Christmas wishes and gifts: a rosary from the Pope to the members of Victor Emmanuel's delegation in return for a painting and history of the Savoys.
"This was the greatest present we could have received for Christmas," an emotional Victor Emmanuel told reporters at Rome's Ciampino airport, as he prepared to board his private jet for the return journey to his home in Geneva.
The royal party gazed in admiration at the frescoes of the apostolic palace, strolled in the Vatican gardens and diverted their motorcade to view a stretch of the Appian Way and the Colosseum. The hastily organised visit left no room for contact with Italy's state authorities and Italian reporters were quick to spot a deliberate snub to the republican state that had taken so long to authorise their return.
"The prince looked uncomfortable when he was asked why he had made no gesture of courtesy towards President [Carlo Azeglio] Ciampi," said Tommaso Debenedetti, a reporter covering the visit for the Naples daily Il Mattino. "There seems to be an implicit desire not to recognise the Italian authorities fully."
Victor Emmanuel went into exile at the age of nine after his family's repudiation in a referendum on the monarchy. His grandfather, King Victor Emmanuel III, was tainted by involvement with fascism and approval of Benito Mussolini's anti-semitic race laws under which all Jewish students were expelled from schools and Jews were banned from public office and forbidden to marry outside their race.
The final straw was his ignominious flight from Rome in the face of German troops on September 8 1943.
Abdication in favour of his son, Umberto, prolonged the monarchy for only 27 days.
In June 1946 more than 54% of Italians cast their referendum vote in favour of a republic and the post-war constitution specifically banned the male heirs of the house of Savoy from setting foot on Italian soil.
Exile in Portugal, and later Switzerland, saw an agonisingly slow reconciliation between the Savoys and republican Italy. The fence-mending process was hindered by a series of scandals and diplomatic gaffes that undermined public sympathy for the banished family. Victor Emmanuel's involvement in arms dealing on behalf of the shah of Iran, his membership of the outlawed rightwing masonic lodge P2 and his prosecution - and subsequent acquittal - for the accidental shooting of a young German man on a yacht near the French island of Cavallo did nothing for the family's popularity.
But as the memory of the war faded and concerns over the Savoys' ability to influence Italian politics diminished, the family began to press for its male members' right to be treated like other European citizens. In 1988 Victor Emmanuel recognised the republic as an "incontrovertible reality". But incautious royal pronouncements continued to hamper the healing process.
In 1996 he unwisely championed the superiority of monarchies over republics, telling Swiss television that royalty still constituted a valid symbol of the "unity and continuity of the nation". A year later he caused outrage by suggesting on Italian TV that Mussolini's race laws were "not that terrible" and had been applied with a light hand.
Further apologies brought a breakthrough and the Italian parliament voted last July to remove the ban. Final clearance for their return came on November 10, exactly 64 years from the enactment of the infamous 1938 race laws.
It has taken the family more than a month to avail themselves of the long-awaited right to visit their homeland: the prince is suffering from crushed vertebrae sustained in a motor rally accident in Egypt, while his son has been pursuing sporting engagements abroad, most recently a jet-ski competition in west Africa.
Italy may be unfamiliar to the ex-royals - Victor Emmanuel confessed that he had difficulty in recognising the monuments of Rome after such a prolonged absence - but they are frequently seen on Italian television. Emmanuel Filiberto's thick mane of blond hair and designer stubble have ornamented variety shows and football discussion programmes on Italian television, where he is better known as a Juventus fan than a blue-blooded Swiss-based financier. His most recent appearance was in an advertisement for cocktail olives, recommended to viewers who want to "feel like a king".
Victor Emmanuel promised to make his real return to Italy - probably beginning in Naples - in six weeks. Not everyone is anxiously awaiting that moment. Gianfranco Pagliarulo, a communist senator, described yesterday's event as a "disconcerting leap into the past".
Rocco Buttiglione, the centrist European affairs minister, found it hard to work up any enthusiasm. The visit had not even reinforced his republican sentiments, he said. "I can't summon any interest. They are citizens like everyone else."