After a botched attempt at meeting at the opera, Italian Prime Minister Mr Silvio Berlusconi and German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder finally got their chance this morning to show the world that their summer rows were behind them.
The two leaders met for about an hour in the Verona prefect's office, their first encounter since the spat broke out in July when Berlusconi made a joke about Nazis that offended many Germans. In the ensuing fallout, Mr Schroeder canceled his Italian vacation.
Both emerged from this morning's meeting saying relations were fine.
"I don't think you can talk about relations improving because they never worsened," Mr Berlusconi told reporters after the meeting. "The relationship was always excellent."
Mr Schroeder had a slightly different take, saying: "There were some irritations, but this didn't affect the personal or political relationship."
The two had been scheduled to meet yesterday in the northeastern city for a performance of "Carmen." But Mr Berlusconi announced a few hours before the opera that he wouldn't show, saying he feared that leftist demonstrators would protest his presence and ruin the event for everyone.
The row began in July, when Mr Berlusconi was making an appearance at the European Parliament. When German MEP Mr Martin Schulz spoke out against a recent law passed in Italy that froze the premier's trial on corruption charges, Mr Berlusconi snapped back with a typically off-the-cuff comment that he later described as a joke.
"Mr Schulz, I know there is a producer in Italy who is making a film on the Nazi concentration camps," Mr Berlusconi said. "I will suggest you for the role of 'kapo'" a German word used in Nazi concentration camps for privileged prisoners who guarded other inmates.
Germans were disturbed by the flip comment about their darkest period, but Mr Berlusconi refused to apologizs.
Then, an Italian tourism official worsened matters, writing in a newspaper article that Germany was an "arrogant" country and its citizens "stereotyped blondes." This led Mr Schroeder to cancel his vacation in Italy.
Despite the scheduled meeting in Verona the setting of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" no one was expecting Mr Berlusconi and Schroeder to leave with especially fond feelings for each other.
Mr Schroeder said on his arrival yesterday: "We don't need to love each other. It's enough that we respect each other."