The Queen took a break during her State visit to Italy to pay a personal tribute to a Brighton teacher who has won an award for new designers.

She made a special trip to an exhibition to see the work of Gail Eastwood, 36, which was on display at Milan's European Institute of Design.

Gail is joint head of the photography department at Varndean College, Brighton, but had travelled to Italy to display her work alongside contemporaries from all over Europe.

She was chosen to represent the cream of young British designers after the Chartered Society of Designers voted her the winner of the Design Innovation in Textiles award.

The teacher, who has taken a sabbatical to study for an MA in Textile Design at Winchester School of Art, impressed the Queen with her religious images printed on silk chiffon and adapted as roller blinds.

The Queen told her: "That's very nice, you should do well with that."

Alan Jenkins, principal of Varndean College, said: "Obviously everybody at the college, both staff and students alike, are delighted that Gail has been chosen among very few British designers and, in particular, that she had the opportunity to meet the Queen yesterday.

"I think it is just reward for Gail who is an outstanding teacher and who has spent 15 months on secondment, developing her textiles interests.

"It is extremely rewarding that she has been able to do that and that she will be able to pass her experience on to the students."

Vast crowds turned out in Milan, Italy's fashion and design capital, to greet the Queen on the final day of her four-day State visit.

Several hundred people, many waving Union Jacks, cheered as the Queen went walkabout in the city centre.

Before bidding farewell to Milan, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh went to see Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper, Milan's cultural gem.

No visit to the bustling city would be complete without seeing Leonardo's 15th-century masterpiece.

Earlier, Milan's fashion designers gave the Queen their seal of approval. And the Queen saw a new idea for her corgis - a royal doggy bag.