Libyan leader and sitting chairman of the African Union Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi will be in Rome from 10-12 June for his first ever state visit to Italy. As per his custom, Gaddafi will be arriving with an entourage of over 300 people who will be staying with him in a bedouin tent to be erected in Villa Pamphili, much of which will be placed off limits for the duration of his stay.

Upon his arrival on 10 June, Gaddafi will be received by president Giorgio Napolitano at the Quirinale to meet with prime minister Silvio Berlusconi the next day. Gadaffi was originally scheduled to deliver an address at the senate on 11 June, an engagement that has been modified into a meeting with members of parliament at the nearby Palazzo Giustiniani as a result of concern from both sides of the political divide as to the propriety of inviting a despot accused of numerous human rights violations into the halls of Italian democracy. That morning, he will also be speaking at Rome's La Sapienza University.

The next day, on 12 June, Gaddafi will meet with the president of the Italian industrialist's group Confindustria Emma Marcegaglia. After that, he will make an appearance at the Auditorium Parco della Musica for an audience of over 700 women involved in business and politics including the equal opportunity minister Mara Carafagna and Milan mayor Letizia Moratti.

The Capitoline Museums will be closing at 14.00 on 12 June to make way for Gaddafi's visit to the Campidoglio at 18.00, during which he will exchange gifts with mayor Gianni Alemanno and deliver a brief address to a select crowd in Piazza Michelangelo.

A number of protests have been planned for Gaddafi's visit beginning with supporters of left-wing group