Jill Biden arrives in Naples to tour an American military school

First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Naples, Italy Monday afternoon to tour a DOD-funded school, splitting off from husband, President Joe Biden, who traveled to Scotland to participate in the COP26 climate summit.

Biden arrived at the military airport, Mario De Bernardi, outside of Rome, wearing a white dress and dark pink blazer. She paired her outfit with a matching pink face mask, a blue scarf and taupe boots.

She spent several minutes on the breezy tarmac greeting military personnel and hugging staff who accompanied her on the G20 trip to Rome, before taking off for Naples.

After touching down and greeting staff she headed for the American-run Naples Middle/High School where she watched students in a robotics class and tried her hand at making ravioli during a culinary lesson.

‘I’m used to Italian cooking,’ Biden said walking into the cooking class, mentioning both her Italian grandfather and grandmother while making ravioli with some students.

‘I love coming to Italy,’ she said putting on a green apron, as the instructor asked about her trip so far.

‘I do need help,’ a student said, beckoning Biden over to the ravioli station.

Biden spoke of her grandmother, noting ‘She would cook the noodles and then they would hang in her kitchen.’

FLOTUS brushed the ravioli dough and then cut the noodles out.

‘So what are you putting inside of here?’ she asked. ‘And do you have any herbs in there?’

A student told her four cheeses – and said he didn’t know about the herbs.

She and a female student modeled their ravioli for the cameras.

‘I used to make homemade pasta all the time for dinner,’ Biden also noted.

She watched as the female student pressed dough through a machine.

They held up the whole baking sheet of ravioli and walked over to the pool.

‘Do you have a meal together?’ Biden asked the students about what they did when the food was cooked. ‘Sometimes,’ the female student answered.

‘So will you go home and make it for your parents?’ she asked the male student.

‘Probably not,’ he replied to her. ‘It’s too much.’

‘What do you mean it’s too much?’ she said.

‘Wouldn’t it be great to surprise your parents to a meal after work?’ she encouraged him.

The instructor then presented FLOTUS with a chef’s pin that the students get for their lettermen’s jackets.

‘Looks like your doughnuts came out beautifully,’ she said. ‘Take them over to the press.’

‘Really they’re wonderful right?’ Biden said, after a pink-haired student shyly walked the plate of sweets over to the pool.

‘Nice to meet all of you!’ Biden said asking the students what grades they are in. ‘Thanks for letting me into your kitchen.’

In a robotics class of 7th and 8th graders, she introduced herself to the instructor.

‘I’m a fellow colleague, teacher,’ she said.

She thanked them for making a green and white sign welcoming her.

Three students explained to her the robots they made.

‘So did you build the entire robot?’ Biden asked. ‘That’s pretty impressive.’

‘We didn’t have anything like this,’ Biden added.

The first robot followed a black track, while a second stayed within the black lines – like a Roomba. Both were made by female students.

It’s sort of like training a dog, Biden noted.

‘Sometimes that’s life,’ she noted when a third student’s robot malfunctioned.

‘So tell me about the competitions you do?’ Biden asked the third student, a boy. ‘What kind of prizes do you win? How long have you been interested in robotics?’ she also asked.

Biden also looked around and noticed that a majority in the class were males. She asked if that was a trend. The teacher said some of his classes skewed more female and some more male.

‘Are you hoping this will turn into a job of some sort?’ she asked the students.

One of the girls said she wanted to work at Google.

‘That would be an interesting job right?’

Biden then headlined a pep rally for graduating students of the Naples Middle/High School.

But her remarks focused on how tough it often is for military kids and their families.

She opened by talking about how difficult it was for her late son Beau’s family when he was overseas in Iraq.

She said Beau’s daughter Natalie’s teacher put up a picture of his unit in the classroom, ‘Because she was the only child in that school who had a father who was deployed.’

Biden then broadened her remarks to all families, but in a surprise turn, left the podium and asked the students in the audience if they wanted to talk about it.

She walked around the room having students speak.

Biden made fun of the boys for being shy, as girls’ hands shot up first.

‘Look at this, all the girls are raising their hands. What’s a matter with you guys?’ she joked.

One girl acknowledged, ‘I almost cried during your speech,’ while another young man talked about how he was bullied at a previous school for being gay.

‘They called me the F-word, I won’t say it,’ he told the first lady.

‘Thank you,’ she expressed.

‘It’s pretty offensive,’ he noted.

He said things were better at the American military school, expressing there’s a ‘warmth’ at Naples Middle/High School.

After Biden got stories from students all over the gymnasium, she complimented the parents in attendance for raising such ‘strong and resilient kids.’

‘This truly is a family at this school. I want to thank you so much for asking me to be your guest,’ she said.

With that, Biden was headed back to the United States, as her husband stayed in Scotland through Wednesday.

Prior to Naples, Biden kept a busy schedule in Rome.

For her last night there, Biden made a surprise trip to the Borghese Gallery Sunday, after spending a final lunch with the G20 spouses.

FLOTUS, dressed casually in an olive jacket over a cream top, leather pants and black over-the-knee boots, paired with a blue scarf and a black face mask, roamed through the grand galleries looking at classic sculptures and paintings and modern pieces by British artist Damien Hirst.

‘It took your breath away, didn’t it?’ she said after the tour.

Museum director Francesca Cappelletti played tour guide, as tourists who recognized her were heard excitedly saying, ‘first lady!’

‘Is that all from one piece of marble?’ FLOTUS asked about a grand female nude sculpture, Antonio Canova’s Portrait of Paolina Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victrix, which dates back to 1805-1808.

She marveled at some busts that dated back to the 18th century that were a unique brown color and spent several minutes admiring a large sculpture of two humans and a three-headed dog.

Biden was able to see several of the museums prized Berninis, and admired hieroglyphics in a room that included a modern interpretation of King Tut’s mask by Hirst.

In the next room she said ‘it’s bright, right?’ when looking at the painting, ‘boy with a basket of fruit’ by Caravaggio.

As she exited she gave an ‘of course’ when asked if she had fun with the other G20 spouses, who she lunched with earlier Sunday at the Capitoline Museums.

There she greeted Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s wife Maria Cappello, the host of partner events, at the top of the stairs on the Piazza del Capidigolio.

For the fancier affair, she wore her black boots with a green floral dress.

She was captured holding court with Spain‘s Begona Sanchez and Joachim Sauer, the husband of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On Monday, she’ll split off from President Joe Biden – who’s headed to Glasgow, Scotland for the COP26 climate summit – and head south to Naples instead, where she’ll visit a DOD-funded high school.

At the G20, Biden spent time with both French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte, as the U.S. tried to repair relations with its oldest ally after the submarine row.

 She stunned in a sparkly lilac fitted dress by Ralph Lauren at Saturday night’s G20 dinner, which took place at the 16th century Quirinale Palace in Rome.

The leaders and spouses were split up at the dinner, which was hosted by Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

So Dr. Biden sat next to the French president, while President Joe Biden was seated next to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Dr. Biden and President Macron previously bonded when they represented their respective countries at the opening ceremony at the Tokyo Olympics in July.

The first lady and the French president watched several sporting events together after the ceremony.

At dinner Saturday, the G20 leaders and their spouses were served a menu of marinated salmon, risotto with pumpkin and white truffle, roasted artichoke, seabass and vegetables.

Earlier Saturday, Jill Biden joined the other G20 spouses Saturday for a private lunch at Villa Doria Pamphilj, looking friendly with U.K. Prime Minister’s Boris Johnson‘s wife Carrie as they walked through the grounds.

Biden and Johnson, who bonded at the G7 in Cornwall, England in June, walked side-by-side, Biden in a brown blazer and camel dress, Johnson in a bright red Zara blazer and floral dress, as they concluded taking a group picture, according to the first lady’s spokesman.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez‘s wife Begona walked nearby.

A number of the spouses were seen touring Rome’s Colosseum on Saturday, however the American first lady didn’t attend.

On Friday, Biden spent time sipping Chardonnay at a restaurant in downtown Rome with French First Lady Brigitte Macron.

The two first ladies were practically twinning, as the petite blondes both wore navy suits paired with navy heels.

Both petite blondes wore navy suits paired with navy heels.

They got together at a restaurant called Il Marchese, ahead of their husbands’ first meeting since France was blindsided by Australia pulling out of a submarine deal to join a security pact with the United States and the United Kingdom.

Afterward, Biden, 70, standing alongside Macron, 68, said the time spent together was ‘wonderful.’

‘It’s nice, two friends together, just like sisters,’ she cooed.

The two women sipped Chardonnay and ate small bites.

When asked about what they ate and drank, Biden played coy.

‘Well,’ she said, pausing. ‘Practically nothing.’

Biden, whose family is from Italy, spoke glowingly about this year’s G20’s host country.

‘We’ve come here so many times. I love Italy, Brigitte loves Italy. Who would not love Italy? There’s nothing that we couldn’t love about it right?’ she said.

The Bidens, after the death of son Beau in 2015, even spent Thanksgiving in Rome, staying at the U.S. ambassador’s residence, CNN reported Friday.

As she arrived at the restaurant, located on a narrow street near the Tiber river, Biden was asked about her earlier meeting with Pope Francis she attended alongside President Joe Biden.

‘It was wonderful, he was wonderful,’ she told the reporters staged outside the restaurant’s door.

Macron, who arrived second, nodded in affirmation when asked if she was excited to meet with Dr. Biden.

She and Macron had spent time together at a spouses event at the G7 in Cornwall in June, which marked the Bidens’ first overseas trip since the president was sworn-in in January. 

Earlier Friday, Biden had tea with Cappello at the Chigi Palace, while President Biden met with the Italian prime minister.

After a weekend of private spouse events, the first lady will do a solo trip to Naval Support Activity Naples on Monday, where about 8,500 U.S. troops work.

There, the first lady will visit Naples Middle High School, which is a school operated through the Department of Defense, meeting with high school students and teachers and then delivering a speech.

The event will marry Biden’s ‘Joining Forces’ initiative, which she started with former First Lady Michelle Obama in 2011 and restarted earlier this year, and her career as an English teacher.

Joining Forces provides support to military members, veterans and their families.

Biden continues to teach community college classes – making her the first, first lady to ever hold an outside job.

Biden had a similarly busy schedule on her first solo trip abroad – representing the United States at the opening of the Tokyo summer Olympics.

There, the first lady held court with then Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and his wife Mariko, watched the Olympics with French President Emmanuel Macron, attended an event with heads of delegations at Tokyo’s Imperial Palace and hosted an Olympics watch party for American diplomats at the ambassador’s residence in Tokyo.

She stopped in Alaska and Hawaii to do COVID-19 vaccine advocacy.

In Honolulu, FLOTUS also attended a barbecue for military members and their families as part of Joining Forces.