US vice-president due to visit Italy at Easter, source says

ROME (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President JD Vance is planning to visit Italy later this month, a diplomatic source said on Tuesday, highlighting the apparently warm ties between Washington and Rome.

Italy is one of the few countries in Europe that has looked to accommodate President Donald Trump, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni recently saying she backed Vance's scathing attack on European leaders that he made in Germany in February.

Vance was due to visit from April 18-20, coinciding with the Easter holidays, but the dates were not yet fixed, the source said, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg.

The U.S. embassy in Rome and Vance's office in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini spoke to Vance by telephone two weeks ago, saying on Instagram afterwards that the call had "reaffirmed the strong friendship and cooperation between our two countries".

Meloni was the only EU leader to attend Trump's inauguration in January and has carefully steered clear of any criticism of the U.S. president, even as he has hit Europe with tariffs and threatened to abandon Ukraine in its war with Russia.

In an interview with the Financial Times last week, Meloni supported Vance's hard-hitting speech in Germany, when he accused Europe of censoring free speech, muzzling far-right political opponents and failing to control immigration.

"I have to say I agree," Meloni was quoted as saying. "I've been saying this for years . . . Europe has a bit lost itself."

Vance is a Roman Catholic but would be unlikely to see Pope Francis if he comes at Easter, with the pontiff still recovering from double pneumonia and not yet receiving visitors.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante and Crispian Balmer; Editing by Marguerita Choy)