The heir to the Italian throne has never visited his family's former realm. Barred by a 1948 constitutional amendment that forbids direct male descendants of the last king of Italy from setting foot on Italian soil, Prince Emanuele Filiberto di Savoia, 28, has to content himself with gazing at the shores of Sardinia through binoculars from Corsica, where his family has a summer home.

'I was 3 when I learned two words at the same time, 'Italy' and 'exile,' ' Emanuele Filiberto, who was born and raised in Geneva, said in flawless Italian over the telephone. 'For me, they were inextricably linked.'

Emanuele Filiberto is lobbying fiercely for an end to his exile. The great-grandson of the wartime king, Vittorio Emanuele III, who cooperated with Mussolini, he apologized in July on Italian radio for the errors of his family. The gesture may help smooth his path among republicans, but it offended Italian monarchists, who feel the royal family has no need to apologize.

For most, his cause does not really stir up old passions anymore. Few Italians believe that he should be held accountable forever for his great-grandfather's collusion with Mussolini -- particularly given the fact that Mussolini's granddaughter, Alessandra Mussolini, is a member of Parliament.

Mostly, his compatriots are betting on whether his request will move through Italy's fractious, slow-moving Parliament in time to meet his personal deadline of visiting Italy during this Roman Catholic Holy Year.

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In the past, Italians have followed the handsome prince's jet set life in glossy magazines like Oggi and Gente, where he is a celebrity along the lines of Formula One race car drivers and former bodyguards of the princesses of Monaco. Where is window key on keyboard.

But in Turin, where the Savoys had their royal palace, their claims have long been only faintly noticed. 'When we speak of royalty here, we mean the Agnellis,' Claudio De Consoli, a Turin-based public relations consultant explained, said, referring to the princes of Italian industry.

But thanks to the young prince's recent lobbying efforts, the royal family's campaign -- waged in European courts, the Vatican, the Italian Parliament and newspapers -- has become one of the more closely watched celebrity travails of the season.

Earlier this summer, Emanuele Filiberto, who works as a banker in Switzerland, threatened to return to Italy on Aug. 19 for the Vatican's World Youth Day Jubilee, saying he would enter the country illegally if necessary. That brinkmanship seemed aimed at taking advantage of the pope's emphasis on forgiveness and clemency during the Holy Year, but the prince has since rethought his tactics. 'Since I said that, there has been some movement in political circles,' he explained. 'I want to go home, but not as an outlaw.'

The Savoy dynasty was founded in the 11th century by Umberto the Whitehanded and ruled over the territories of Savoy, in parts of what are now France and the Italian Piedmont. In the 16th century, the Savoys moved their seat from Chambery to Turin and gradually expanded their territory. After the Italian Risorgimento, the movement to create one country from a patchwork of tiny entities, Italy was united in 1861 under Vittorio Emanuele II.

Before World War II, Vittorio Emanuele III acquiesced to Mussolini's dictatorship, signing the 1938 racial laws that harshly discriminated against Jews. The royal family is also condemned for its actions on Sept. 8, 1943, when Mussolini was overthrown and Italy surrendered to the allies. The king and his court fled German-occupied Rome for safety in Brindisi, abandoning Italian troops. Hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers were deported to internment camps in Germany. (One of the king's sisters, Mafalda, was arrested by the Nazis and died in Buchenwald).

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In 1946, Vittorio Emanuele III abdicated, putting his son Umberto II on the throne in an effort to salvage the monarchy. But Umberto II was king for only one month, until Italians voted in a referendum to abolish the monarchy in favor of a republic. The royal family went into exile, and in 1948 a constitutional amendment barred their return.

Some World War II veterans still oppose the growing consensus for reconciling the past. 'At least wait until my generation is gone,' Alessandro Galante Garrone, 91, a jurist and leader of the wartime resistance, recently told the newspaper La Repubblica. But even many hard-core republicans say the time has come to change the law. Mainly, the question is how.

'The ban makes no sense in the year 2000,' said Giorgio La Malfa, secretary of the Republican Party. 'We have to end it, but with dignity.' He said the Savoy heirs must recognize the errors of Vittorio Emanuele III and also make a solemn statement recognizing that Italy became a republic legitimately.

Both Emanuele Filiberto and his father, Vittorio Emanuele IV, who went into exile in 1946 at age 9 and has also been battling for the right to visit Italy, have recently expressed a willingness to swear allegiance to the Constitution.

The demand that they also affirm its legitimacy is aimed at monarchist complaints that the referendum and the constitutional amendment that followed were legally flawed. 'We advise him not to do it,' said Giulio De Renoche, a member of the Monarchist Movement of Italy. 'It hurts his prestige, and it violates the principles of free expression.'

And even Emanuele Filiberto expressed some irritation with Mr. La Malfa's suggestion. 'We are asked to swear allegiance and to say we are sorry, but the demands keep growing,' he complained. 'It's never enough. Next they will ask me to fly to the moon and back.'

The prince did not rule out an eventual restoration of the monarchy, however unlikely. 'I am from a royal family, so it is hard for me to be against the monarchy,' he said. 'Despite everything, a king can be a source of stability, giving people a unifying figure who is above politics. If the Italian people want it, then I am ready.'

But his fiancee, Natasha Andress Geitling, 31, a Swiss-American who works for Sotheby's in Geneva, said his ambitions were more modest. 'He doesn't want to be king,' he said. 'He just wants to see his friends and family, do a little business and travel. I think the ban is ridiculous.'

Any change to the Constitution requires both houses of Parliament to confirm it twice, making it highly unlikely that the law could be changed before the end of the Holy Year. Instead, a few politicians have suggested a temporary 40-day pass, an exception that would have to be granted by the president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.

And some Italians find the whole royal fuss overrated.

'I want to sell books, so obviously this whole clamor helps me,' said Gianni Oliva, author of a 1998 book titled, 'The Savoys: A Dynasty's Nine Hundred Years,' and of a coming biography of Umberto II. 'But I think they should return in silence. I don't think they merit so much talk.'

Correction: August 14, 2000

An article on Tuesday about Prince Emanuele Filiberto di Sa voia, the exiled heir to the Italian throne, who is campaigning for the right to visit his homeland, misstated the relationship of two members of the Savoy dynasty. Mafalda was the daughter, not the sister, of King Vittorio Emanuele III. Anji mp3.

ROME (AP) — The remains of exiled King Victor Emmanuel III, whose rule through two world wars led to the end of Italy’s monarchy, are expected to be returned to a family mausoleum near Turin soon, an Italian church said Saturday.

The announcement from the Sanctuary of the Nativity of Mary in Vicoforte came hours after the remains of the king’s late wife, Queen Elena, were secretly transferred to the sanctuary from Montpellier, France, where she died in 1959.

Victor Emmanuel ruled Italy from 1900-1946, when he abdicated in favor of his son, Umberto II, in a desperate bid to preserve the monarchy amid rising republican sentiment following Italy’s disastrous involvement in World War II.

A plebescite favored the birth of the Italian republic, forcing both father and son — Italy’s last king — into exile.

Victor Emmanuel died in 1947 in Alexandria, Egypt, where his remains still reside. Umberto died in 1983 in Geneva.

Italy’s post-World War II constitution barred male descendants of the royal House of Savoy from Italian soil as punishment for the family’s support of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The ban was lifted in 2002, and moves to bring royal remains back to Italy began in earnest in 2011.

One of Victor Emmanuel’s great-grandchildren, Emmanuel Filiberto — who along with his father made a triumphant return to Italy in 2002 after the ban was lifted — said he was pleased with the return of his ancestors to Italian soil. But he criticized the secrecy with which Elena’s remains were repatriated, saying he learned of it only from the media.

In an interview with Mediaset’s Tgcom24 Saturday, Filiberto said his grandfather — Umberto II — had always said the remains of exiled members of the House of Savoy should only return if they could be interred in the Pantheon in Rome — the final resting place of many other members of the family.

In a sign of the internecine battles among Europe’s minor royals, Filiberto’s sister appeared to be fully behind the initiative to keep the remains up north near Turin. Another relative, Prince Serge of Yugoslavia, reportedly is seeking to block Victor Emmanuel’s remains from coming back to Italy altogether.

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This version has been corrected to show that Italy’s last king, Victor Emmanuel’s son, was Umberto II, not I.