Nestled in the Italian hills at a wine estate featuring hand-painted frescoed ceilings, the Princess of Wales kicked off her heels in her suite on Wednesday evening.

Catherine phoned home and gave her husband William and their children the news they must have felt they had been missing for years.

She was, I understand, exhausted but overjoyed after a fast-paced and emotional day on which she marked her royal comeback in extraordinary style.

Earlier that day she had stepped out of her car in the city of Reggio Emilia to thunderous cheers from a crowd of 3,000 Italian well-wishers chanting ‘Bellissima!’ and ‘We love you Kate!’

From babies to people in wheelchairs, the young and the old were lining the town square, waving Union Flags, hanging out of windows wearing fascinators, and generally giving the princess a proper rock star welcome.

Some local TV reporters even wore hats after hearing a rumour that a special dress code was required to meet royalty.

It put a megawatt smile on Catherine’s face as she conducted a royal walkabout – which they call a ‘crowd bath’ in Italy – to meet as many as possible of the fans who had got up early or driven hundreds of miles for a chance to see her.

Even after it was time to leave, Catherine dashed back – in high heels – to collect bouquets from two women who had been waiting for her.

This tsunami of goodwill was heartfelt and to the princess its effect seemed like a shot in the arm.

She was overheard confessing she felt ‘emotional’ and people close to Catherine I have spoken to believe this moment will serve as a landmark in her life.

She was, I was told, ‘completely energised’ by the love she has received in Italy – and the official welcome on Wednesday lunchtime was only the start of it. Later that day, a group of teachers actually began crying after she visited their school, showing just how much the royal visit means to this small Italian city.

This was Catherine’s first solo royal trip since cancer brought her world to a halt. It has been four long years since her star power was last on display on a solo overseas visit to Denmark in 2022.

This time there is a palpable difference. Surviving cancer, and with it months of gruelling treatment, has given Catherine a fresh purpose. Those around her say she has emerged with a ‘new perspective’, not just on work but on all aspects of her life.

All the signs are that she does not want any more time wasted. One source described this new phase as her ‘taking it up a gear’.

She chose Reggio Emilia because she has long wanted to come here. The city in northern Italy is famed for its pioneering approach to educating the very young, a cause close to the princess’s heart. She launched her own initiative, the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, in 2021.

Catherine came here to see the ‘Reggio Emilia approach’ of child-led education for herself, and learn ideas for improving young lives.

But what I saw up close during her two-day tour reveals that the wider mission is clear: the Princess of Wales is back in business on the world stage – and this is just the start of it.

Prince William is said to be fully supportive of his wife’s crusade. During their phone call on Wednesday evening, in the tranquil setting of the Venturini Baldini family’s sprawling wine estate with birdsong as the backdrop, she told him all about her extraordinary first day in Italy.

She chatted with her husband and their children during a rare few moments of solitude on the trip for the princess, who must have had conversations with over a hundred people by that point in the day – many of them conducted in Italian.

She melted hearts by telling fans: ‘Un po d’Italiano. Come ti chiami? Io sono Catarina,’ (‘I speak a little Italian. What’s your name? I am Catarina’) having learnt the basics of the language during a formative gap year in Florence when she was 18.

At the Salvador Allende preschool, she took a seat on a tree stump and said: ‘Ciao a tutti!’ (Hello everybody) as the children introduced themselves to her one by one. One girl said in English: ‘My name is Rebecca,’ and Catherine told her: ‘Well done!’

Throughout the two days, the princess worked hard and was variously rewarded with squeals of delight, hugs, selfies, high-fives, smiles, waves and cheers from the genuinely thrilled Italians she met.

But bearing in mind she is still recovering from her cancer ordeal, it is no wonder that one person I spoke to said she was delighted by how well the first day had gone. ‘She had a great day. She was really energised by it,’ they said.

Perhaps there was a sense of relief too, because both Catherine and her aides have been well aware that she cannot yet expect to be back to full strength.

The princess herself has remarked that, when you go through the volume of chemotherapy that she has had, the effects stay in the body for a very long time.

The watchwords of this visit were ‘balanced approach’. After her diagnosis and surgery in 2024, the path back to normal royal duties has necessarily been a gradual one.

She was officially in remission in January 2025, but this is her first overseas work trip.

One royal source told me: ‘The visit reflects that she is able to begin undertaking international trips like this again, while, of course, still taking a balanced approach.

‘It has been good to get back into the habit of doing something abroad – and she’s loved it.’

It helps, of course, that the comeback tour has been shaped around Catherine’s passion for early childhood. She is highly knowledgeable on the subject, making it easier to have conversations with many of her hosts who are experts in that field.

Reggio Emilia’s internationally recognised approach to early years education places relationships, environment and community at the centre of a child’s development. (It is a bit like the Montessori method – only better, they insist.)

Following the Second World War, residents of the city – many of them women – financed some of Italy’s inaugural nursery schools by selling scrap metal salvaged from equipment left behind by retreating German forces. These pioneering efforts laid the groundwork for the educational philosophy, which is now influential worldwide and aligns closely with Catherine's focus on children’s social and emotional wellbeing.

One of the meetings she enjoyed the most, I was told, was talking history with three ‘nonnas’ – the endearing Italian word for grandmother – at the town hall.

Carla Nironi, Iona Bartoli and Eletta Bertani were all born around the start of the Second World War, and told her of their lifelong work to spread Reggio Emilia teaching methods through the community.

As 86-year-old Mrs Nironi later told me, the warm feelings are mutual. ‘She is a wonderful person. If I think about the other members of the Royal Family, I think Catherine is a step ahead of them. If she was to become queen, she would be the greatest queen on earth.’

Catherine clearly means business here and wore a stunning pale blue trouser suit on her first day, the creation of British-Canadian designer Edeline Lee. Her second day was a nod to her hosts with a set of Italian brands, including a blazer by Blaze Milano and a fabric bracelet by Atelier Malayan, a small label based in Milan.

‘Catarina mania’ spread far beyond the walls of Reggio Emilia. The 16th-century wine estate ten miles away in the Matidilche Hills, where Catherine slept, was supposedly her secret haven, with Kensington Palace consistently refusing to divulge where she was staying. Yet word passed around excited locals, and when the princess left on Thursday morning, there were several hundred of them lining the country lane.

Her second day saw her charming the Italians again as she laughed while kneading pasta dough. She became a ‘Rezdora’ for the afternoon – an Italian matriarch or housewife who specialises in masterfully rolling fresh pasta by hand – at Agriturismo Al Vigneto, a traditional farm-stay on a hilly vineyard an hour’s drive from Reggio Emilia.

Her culinary instructor, chef Ivan Lampredi, did not let her off lightly and there was what seemed like a very long period when the princess was expected to knead the dough whilst making endless small talk, as about a dozen people watched in silence. ‘It’s very quiet in here,’ she said, joking: ‘It’s a good work-out.’ This was the last engagement of the trip and by now she must have been tired. But she managed to keep everyone happy. Chef Ivan told her: ‘You are hired.’

Catherine, 44, will have flown home knowing that her trip was a resounding success – for her, the Royal Family and Great Britain. One aide told me that William’s steadfast support for his wife’s work is one of the things that makes her confident to take it to the next level. ‘William is really supportive of what she is doing, and is really excited for her that her early years foundation is going on to the next stage,’ they said.

The princess is vowing to launch a ‘global conversation’ about improving young lives, and that means many more trips overseas in the future.

Another insider said she ‘wants to look at other models around the world and really create a global conversation’, adding: ‘This is a huge moment for the princess. There will be many highlights of 2026 but this is a really significant moment for her.’

There have been light-hearted suggestions about where Catherine might seek inspiration next, the Maldives being jokingly mentioned, possibly by hopeful courtiers.

Either way, the message from the palace is clear – this is going to be a global mission, and the princess is determined to get on with it. Aides have remarked there is a different pace to her work, compared to before her cancer treatment, and jested that they expected the princess to be asking them to plan the next trip as soon as she gets home from this one.

As she flew back to Britain, Catherine said she had drawn deep inspiration from the Italians and issued a statement thanking her hosts ‘for welcoming me into a culture of care with such warmth and generosity’.

Marco Massari, the mayor of Reggio Emilia which has seen a recent spike in crime, responded that with Catherine’s trip ‘in a daily life marked by violence and conflict, the visit of such a popular person, who decides to dedicate her time to the education of children, restores hope and energy’. He dubbed her ‘an icon of style, commitment, culture and intelligence’.

An aide to the princess told the Daily Mail that the visit ‘resonated strongly’ with her. They said: ‘She was particularly moved by the sense that children are not simply prepared for academic success, but are nurtured as whole individuals through relationships, nature, play and emotional expression.

‘She loved seeing the joy, curiosity and confidence encouraged in the children she met and reflected afterwards on how much adults long to reconnect with those same feelings of presence and openness in later life.

‘She returned home energised by the conversations and experiences from the week and very much looking forward to sharing stories from the visit with The Prince of Wales and their children at home in Windsor.’

The Princess of Wales is forging her own path with her early years projects – but this week she has also reminded the world just how good she is at flying the flag for Britain.