Italy's exiled royals, banned half a century ago because of their family's support for the war-time fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, face a three-month wait before they can return.
The Italian government's official gazette released today formally set the clock ticking on a countdown to an historic return on October 15, the date on which a law passed by parliament last week takes effect.
Only a 'no' vote in a highly unlikely referendum could stop surviving royals Vittorio Emmanuele, 65, and his 30-year-old banker son Filiberto from returning from their exile in Geneva.
They are the direct male decendants of Italy's last king, Umberto II, who took nine-year-old Emmanuele from Italy in 1946. Umberto was banished for his father Vittorio Emmanuele III's endorsement of the deportation of around 8,000 Jews.
Filiberto has never lived in the country, which became a republic in 1946.
A bill scrapping a constitutional provision barring the descendants of the late king from entering Italy was approved in the lower house of parliament by a vote of 347 to 69 on July 11.
The upper house, the Senate, approved the bill in May, but a provision in the bill means the question of the royal return could be thrown open to a national referendum.
Calls for a referendum must win the support of one-fifth of the Chamber of Deputies' 630 members, or half a million voters, or five of Italy's regional 20 regions.
While some political parties such as the marginal Refounded Communists voted against overturning the ban, and the Northern League abstained, there is little appetite among mainstream parties for a costly referendum.
The sentimental Emmanuele, a keen yachtsman, has voiced an intention to return to Italy by the same route through which he exited, sailing from Naples harbour in 1946.
AFP