Kate (15 page)

With its pink, green and white marble Duomo, or cathedral, dominating the Tuscan skyline, famous medieval bridge, the Ponte Vecchio, spanning the River Arno and wealth of treasures such as Michelangelo’s
David
and Botticelli’s
Birth of Venus
, Florence is a haven for art lovers and tourists. Known as ‘the cradle of the Renaissance’, it has become a traditional place of pilgrimage for public-school boys and girls hoping to study history of art at one of Britain’s top universities. A trip to the city, once ruled by the Medici family and now home to some of the greatest treasures in the art world, has become a rite of passage for well-heeled teenagers in the same manner as the Grand Tour was a prerequisite for privileged aristocrats during the nineteenth century. Kate had applied to study art history at several universities and it was almost a given that she would spend a portion of her gap year in Italy before she knuckled down to the everyday rigours of student life.

Kate arrived in Florence at the beginning of September 2000 to do a 12-week course in Italian at the world-renowned British Institute. She was one of about a dozen girls in her class at the Institute, which had been founded at the turn of the century to foster cultural relations between Italy and the English-speaking world, and was based in the Palazzo Strozzino, in the heart of the city.

More than 5,500 miles away, on the other side of the world, Prince William was spending a month working on a scientific and ecological research programme, the Shoals of Capricorn Project, for the Royal Geographical Society on the tiny island of Rodrigues, 400 miles north-east of Mauritius in the Indian ocean. Registering as Mr Brian Woods, he arrived on the island on 28 August and worked on the project for a month. Initially, he stayed in le Domaine de Décidé, a tin-roofed guesthouse with whitewashed walls and dark shutters, located down a track half an hour from the capital, Port Mathurin. Afterwards, he moved into a private house in Anse aux Anglais – English Bay – which was closer to civilisation.

Like Kate, he had received his A level results (an A in geography, a B in history of art and a C in biology) on 17 August, when Prince Charles had sent his first-ever email to pass them on to his son, who was on an army survival exercise deep in the Belize jungle. But unlike Kate, he had already chosen which university he was going to attend: St Andrews.

A fellow student at the British Institute remembers that when Kate arrived in Florence she had not decided where she would be studying. ‘She hadn’t confirmed where she was going,’ she says. ‘She certainly wasn’t going to St Andrews at that point.’

It was a formative time for Kate, on the cusp of adulthood. Although she had already been away from home at boarding school, it was the first time she had lived independently from her parents. Having not yet developed the fashion sense that has more recently seen her compared to the late Princess Diana, she looked much like a typical Sloane Ranger, with her long curly hair, Ralph Lauren shirts and V-neck jumpers. Her only concession to student style was the ethnic jewellery she wore.

On arriving in the city, Kate began sharing a flat with a number of different girls, including the singer Chris Rea’s niece Alice Whitaker. They lived above an Italian delicatessen on the top floor of a traditional stone building that had been converted into several flats, reached by a stone staircase. The flat was in a tiny street between Piazza degli Strozzi and Piazza della Repubblica, within walking distance of the Institute. Over the next three months, Kate would immerse herself in the life of a student in Italy, shopping for delicacies at the covered food market opposite the historic San Lorenzo church, which houses the Medici family vault, and meeting friends in quaint cafés and lively bars.

It was in one of these bars, the trendy Antico Caffè del Moro – known as the Art Bar or Café des Artistes – that rumours about the possibility of Prince William spending time in the Tuscan capital after leaving Rodrigues first reached the British students in Italy. Prince Charles had lunched at Highgrove with the Mayor of Florence, inadvertently sparking rumours that his son would soon be joining seven other old Etonians on the prestigious £5,000 John Hall Pre-University Course in Venice, Florence and Rome. It was only when William flew out to the remote Chilean mountains of Patagonia on 1 October – to embark on seven weeks’ voluntary work with the charity Raleigh International – that the rumours were dispelled.

That night in the Café des Artistes, a tiny bohemian backstreet bar run by two brothers who had become renowned for their spectacular cocktails, Kate was sipping a glass of wine when the conversation turned to speculation that the prince would be joining them in the city. Despite the crush on the prince that Kate supposedly had at Marlborough, friends say that she seemed blasé about the news.

It transpires that she had set her sights on a more attainable target, an old Marlburian called Harry, who was studying in Florence on the John Hall course. One student who met Kate during her gap year reported that by the time she arrived in Florence, Harry had surpassed William in her affections. ‘The only time I ever remember her talking about William was when we found out that he was coming over to study in Florence,’ the unnamed friend reported. ‘We would speculate about hanging out with him, but to be honest Kate never really showed any interest in him, or talked about him that much. She certainly wasn’t going to St Andrews with the intention to snare him or anything like that. In fact, she was more hung up on a guy called Harry . . . They had been seeing each other, but he messed her around quite a bit and strung her along.’

Photographic Insert

Kate’s great-grandfather Charlie Goldsmith (bottom left) during the First World War.
(Courtesy of Kim Sullivan)

Kate’s grandfather Ronald Goldsmith (front) with (l–r) his brother-in-law Henry ‘Titch’ Jones, his sister-in-law Emma Goldsmith, his sister Ede Jones, his brother Charlie Goldsmith, his mother, Edith Goldsmith, and his sister Joyce Plummer.

Kate’s great aunts, Ronald Goldsmith’s sisters (l–r): Hetty, Ede, carrying Joyce, and Alice.

Kate’s grandmother Dorothy Harrison and grandfather Ronald Goldsmith on their wedding day, 8 August 1953, at Holy Trinity Church, Southall.

Kate’s great-great-great-grandfather Frank Lupton.
(Courtesy of Arthur Lupton)

Kate’s great-grandmother Olive Lupton.
(Courtesy of Arthur Lupton)

Kate and Fergus Boyd at the Don’t Walk charity fashion show in St Andrews, 2002.
(© Getty Images)