The official celebrations for the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II started in Naples on Friday 5 June 2009 and continued in Rome on 9 June with a reception hosted by British Amabassador to Italy Edward Chaplin in the gardens of his official residence, Villa Wolkonsky. Celebrations will continue in Milan, Palermo and Florence on 11, 16 and 18 June respectively.

For the second year running the celebrations organised in Italy will be compensated, thanks to British Gas , by a tree planting programme to offset the CO2 emissions from energy and materials consumption and from the guests' transport.

About 46 trees will be planted in the Vallone di Portamisuso area, in the Gargano National Park in Puglia, in the framework of the Boschi AzzeroCO2 project.

The celebrations also focused on development, in particular on the UN Millenium Development Goals, through an exhibition of messges which Italian schoolchildren sent to the G8 leaders in the framework of the "Little Authors of Great Thoughts" competition , a project supported by the British Embassy in Rome and run in cooperation with the Italian Office of the Millennium Campaign, Tavola della Pace and the Italian Local Authorities for Peace and Human Rights.

Panels showing some of the best letters, in which schoolchildren remind world leaders of the importance of ending poverty and hunger and ensuring that everyone has access to education, were on display in the gardens.

Note per i redattori

Images of the event are available on our Flickr page.

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