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Queen Camilla Celebrates Anniversary with Italian Pizza and Ice Cream

Britain's Queen Camilla receives an ice cream as she leaves the Italian Lower House, where King Charles III addressed a joint session of the Italian Parliament during a special ceremony in front of both Chambers of the Italian Parliament, during their state visit to Italy, in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2025. (EPA)
Britain's Queen Camilla receives an ice cream as she leaves the Italian Lower House, where King Charles III addressed a joint session of the Italian Parliament during a special ceremony in front of both Chambers of the Italian Parliament, during their state visit to Italy, in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2025. (EPA)
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Queen Camilla Celebrates Anniversary with Italian Pizza and Ice Cream

Britain's Queen Camilla receives an ice cream as she leaves the Italian Lower House, where King Charles III addressed a joint session of the Italian Parliament during a special ceremony in front of both Chambers of the Italian Parliament, during their state visit to Italy, in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2025. (EPA)
Britain's Queen Camilla receives an ice cream as she leaves the Italian Lower House, where King Charles III addressed a joint session of the Italian Parliament during a special ceremony in front of both Chambers of the Italian Parliament, during their state visit to Italy, in Rome, Italy, 09 April 2025. (EPA)

Italians offered pizza and ice cream to Britain's Queen Camilla to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of her wedding to King Charles during a state visit to Italy on Wednesday.

Camilla and Charles walked to the renowned Giolitti cafe in central Rome where the queen sampled an ice cream from a paper cup after the king had made a historic speech to the nearby Italian parliament.

Camilla had earlier been presented with a boxed pizza after attending an event at a school in Rome.

More formal dining will be on the agenda on Wednesday evening when Italian President Sergio Mattarella hosts a banquet for the royal couple at the Quirinale Palace.

Charles told parliament that Britain had been heavily influenced by Italian cooking. "I can only hope you will forgive us for occasionally corrupting your wonderful cuisine. We do so with the greatest possible affection," he said, to loud laughter.

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Droughts in Iraq Endanger Buffalo, and Farmers' Livelihoods

A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
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Droughts in Iraq Endanger Buffalo, and Farmers' Livelihoods

A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani
A man provides fresh drinking water for his buffaloes, in the Chebayesh marshes of Dhi Qar province, Iraq, April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

Iraq’s buffalo population has more than halved in a decade as the country's two main rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, suffer severe droughts that endanger the livelihood of many farmers and breeders.
"People have left ... We are a small number of houses remaining," said farmer Sabah Ismail, 38, who rears buffalo in the southern province of Dhi Qar.
"The situation is difficult ... I had 120 to 130 buffalo; now I only have 50 to 60. Some died, and we sold some because of the drought," said Ismail while tending his herd.
Buffalo have been farmed for centuries in Iraq for their milk, and are mentioned in ancient Sumerian inscriptions from the region.
According to Iraqi marshland experts, the root causes of the water crisis driving farmers out of the countryside are climate change, upstream damming in Türkiye and Iran, outdated domestic irrigation techniques and a lack of long-term management plans.
The country has also endured decades of warfare.
Located within the cultivable lands known as the Fertile Crescent that have been farmed for millennia, the Iraqi landscape has suffered from upstream damming of the Tigris and Euphrates and lower rainfall, threatening the lifestyle of farmers like Ismail and leading many to move to the cities.
Iraqi marshland expert Jassim al-Assadi told Reuters that the number of buffalo in Iraq had fallen since 2015 from 150,000 to fewer than 65,000.
The decline is "mostly due to natural reasons: the lack of needed green pastures, pollution, illness ... and also farmers refraining from farming buffalos due to scarcity of income," al-Assadi said.
A drastic decline in crop production and a rise in fodder prices have also left farmers struggling to feed their animals.
The difficulty of maintaining a livelihood in Iraq's drought-stricken rural areas has contributed to growing migration towards the country's already-choked urban centers.
"This coming summer, God only knows, the mortality rate may reach half," said Abdul Hussain Sbaih, 39, an Iraqi buffalo breeder.