'Friendship and laughs make our marrriage...

LAUGHTER, friendship and simply "getting on with life" is the secret to the King and Queen's 20 years of wedded bliss, Camilla said as they marked their anniversary in Rome.

- By Emily Ferguson Royal Editor in Rome

And true to her word the pair were busily getting on with a historic day in their royal visit to Italy yesterday. The Queen was carrying out a solo engagement at a school where she was presented with a pizza while Charles held an official meeting with Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni in the grounds of Villa Doria Pamphili.

Camilla said that due to their packed diary she and the King are "always going in different directions, like ships that pass in the night", though they had scheduled some time to be together yesterday.

She said: "We have got a bit of a catch-up this afternoon."

Camilla was referring to a brief break in the diary after the King's historic address to a joint session of the Italian parliament and before their later attendance at a glittering state banquet yesterday evening.

She said they would wait until they return home before exchanging gifts, though she hinted that she had something up her sleeve yesterday.