Aung San Suu Kyi visits Rome to receive overdue honorary citizenship

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize laureate and long-time political prisoner, speaks as Rome mayor Ignazio Marino looks at her, during a ceremony in which she received the honorary citizenship, in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP/NEWSis)

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi has picked up an overdue honor from Rome, a city she fondly recalled enjoying, along with its gelato, 40 years earlier. The Nobel Peace Prize winner received Rome’s honorary citizenship Sunday night in City Hall on the ancient Capitoline Hill.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize laureate and long-time political prisoner, poses with the wolf symbol of the city of Rome, during a ceremony in which she received the honorary citizenship, in Rome, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP/NEWSis)

In 1994, Rome had conferred the honor in absentia on Suu Kyi, a champion of democracy who spent years as a political prisoner in her homeland. She and her National League for Democracy party were frozen out of politics by the military regime that governed until 2011, and last year she and several dozen party members won parliamentary seats.

In picking up the honor Sunday, she recalled visiting Rome while a student at Oxford. On Monday, Suu Kyi meets with Pope Francis at the Vatican. (AP/NEWSis)