On 5 May, the day before the swearing of the oath, Ms Carobbio and Mr Fournier attended a wreath laying ceremony at the Vatican in honour of the guards who fell in battle on 6 May 1527. On Monday, 6 May, they attended mass in St Peter’s basilica before proceeding to the swearing-in ceremony in the San Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace, where 23 new guards swore the oath on the Guard’s standard. The Swiss authorities were represented by presidents Carobbio Guscetti and Fournier and certain members of the Federal Assembly, as well as by Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, lieutenant general Philippe Rebord and the authorities of the Canton of Ticino, this year’s host canton in the Vatican.
Ms Carobbio Guscetti and Mr Fournier took the opportunity offered by their official visit to Italy and the Vatican to visit the Istituto Svizzero in Rome, where they met the president, Mario Annoni, and the director, Joëlle Comé. Key elements of the mission of the Istituto Svizzero in Rome are the development of artistic and scholarly networks and cooperation between Switzerland and Italy and the promotion of Swiss education, research, innovation and artistic creation in Italy.
During her official visit, Ms Carobbio, together with the president and vice-president of the delegation responsible for relations with the Italian parliament, Marco Chiesa and Fabio Abate, was also received by her Italian counterpart, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Roberto Fico. The two presidents discussed issues currently affecting Switzerland-Italy relations, such as the agreement on taxation of cross-border workers, initialled in 2015, transport infrastructure and relations between Switzerland and the EU. The meeting also provided the opportunity to exchange views on the importance of building stronger and closer relations – in particular at parliamentary level – between Switzerland and Italy. The official visit to the Chamber of Deputies was followed by a working meeting with certain members of the Italian parliament, including Cristian Romaniello, acting as president of the Italian parliament’s bilateral friendship group with Switzerland.
On Friday, 3 May, the Società Dante Alighieri – founded in 1889 with the aim of protecting and promoting the Italian language and culture worldwide – recognised Ms Carobbio Guscetti’s work promoting the Italian language in Switzerland with a certificate of permanent membership of the society, awarded by president Andrea Riccardi. Following the award ceremony in the presence of Fabio Abate, member of the Council of States, and Alessandro Masi, general secretary of the Società Dante Alighieri, Ms Carobbio Guscetti and Mr Riccardi gave talks as part of a public event on the Italian language in the context of Swiss multilingualism.
Ms Carobbio Guscetti, accompanied by Mr Chiesa and Mr Abate, also visited one of the sites of the Swiss School of Rome. The delegation, accompanied by the director, Claudia Engeler, and the president of the administrative council, Pio Federici, toured the school’s facilities and met some of the nursery, primary and upper secondary school pupils. The Swiss School of Rome, founded in 1946, is a Swiss school abroad recognised in Switzerland at federal level (by educationsuisse) and in Italy. It offers bilingual teaching in Italian and German and a Swiss curriculum leading to the Swiss baccalaureate.
Ms Carobbio Guscetti and Mr Fournier were accompanied by Ambassador Claudio Fischer, the head of International Relations and Multilingualism, by Switzerland’s ambassador to Italy, Rita Adam, and Switzerland’s ambassador to the Holy See, Denis Knobel.