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A charm necklace the Princess of Wales wore on the first day of her visit to Italy on Wednesday carried a quiet personal significance that went beyond its understated appearance. Kate Middleton stepped out Wednesday in a powder blue suit by Canadian-British designer Edeline Lee, pairing it with pearl drop earrings and a delicate gold charm necklace featuring a pearl, oak leaves, a mushroom, and an acorn. The Princess has worn the pearl necklace, from Monica Vicander, along with the Asprey London woodland charms, before.
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The Princess of Wales seen arriving in Reggio Emilia on Wednesday.
The oak and acorn motifs are especially notable as they are symbols from the Middleton family coat of arms, granted to her father, Michael Middleton, ahead of Kate’s 2011 wedding to Prince William. The symbols have appeared in some of Kate’s most meaningful pieces of jewelry. Her wedding earrings, commissioned by her parents Carole and Michael, and made by Robinson Pelham, featured the same oak leaf and acorn design.
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Kate wore her wedding earrings with the oak and acorn motifs to a royal garden party in 2025.
The Princess of Wales is spending two days in Italy, specifically in the northern city of Reggio Emilia. She is meeting with educators, parents, children, and business leaders to observe the city’s internationally recognized style of early childhood education, known as the “Reggio Emilia approach.” Kate has made the early years a focus of her work for more than a decade, and she launched the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood in 2021 to further pursue those efforts. This trip marks a significant step in her work as the organization expands its reach internationally.
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Kate speaking with local schoolchildren in Reggio Emilia.
The two-day trip is also Kate’s first solo royal international engagement in three years as well as since her cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2024. The Princess of Wales most recently appeared in Marseilles, France in October 2023 to support the England rugby team in her role as patron of the Rugby Football Union. She has previously gone on solo work trips to Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
It also marks a personal return to the country for Kate, as she spent part of her gap year in Tuscany in 2000, studying art history and learning how to speak Italian at the British Institute of Florence.
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Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.