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 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?' 

For her last night in Rome, Biden made a surprise trip to the Borghese Gallery in Rome 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.