Disgraced Italian royal family returns from exile

Italy's royal family has returned home to end 56 years in exile.

Italy's royal family has returned home to end 56 years in exile.

The royal family was reviled by many Italians after World War Two for collaborating with fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

Officials at Rome's Ciampino airport said Prince Vittorio Emanuele (64), son of Italy's last king, was accompanied by his wife Marina Doria and their Prince Emanuele Filiberto (30).

The heirs to Italy's discredited throne returned on a special fight from Geneva on Monday where the family have lived for much of the exile.

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The Italian government ruled in October the Savoy royal family could re-enter their ancestral homeland after parliament voted to end an exile imposed on male heirs for the family's dealings with Mussolini.

The final green light for their return came on October 15th when the country's highest court ruled that a petition by anti-royalists to prolong the banishment had failed.

Italians voted to abolish the monarchy in 1946, punishing the family for collaborating with Mussolini and ignominiously fleeing Rome in 1943 to avoid an invading German army.

Facing pressure from the European Court of Human Rights, however, Italy's parliament voted in July to rewrite the constitution to allow the heirs back home as ordinary Italian citizens.