Relations between Rome and Madrid have deteriorated sharply in recent weeks, as a dispute over migration has escalated into one of the most serious diplomatic confrontations between the two southern European countries in recent years.
What began with Italy reintroducing border controls on travellers arriving from Spain, after a mass influx of migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, has developed into a tit-for-tat stand-off.
Spain has since imposed its own checks on travellers arriving from Italy, while Madrid has demanded that Rome lift its restrictions. The immediate trigger was the migration crisis in Ceuta, but the dispute exposes a deeper political divide between two countries that, on paper, should be natural allies.
Natural allies
"It shouldn't be possible for two natural allies and friends like Spain and Italy not to take full advantage of their joint potential," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on a visit to Rome in 2020.
