YOOX Net-a-Porter founder Federico Marchetti tells PEOPLE all about a special stop with the King during his royal tour of Italy

Federico Marchetti, founder of YOOX Net-a-Porter and chair of the Fashion Task Force from the Sustainable Market Initiative that King Charles created, tells PEOPLE about their time together in Ravenna, Italy

King Charles, 76, was "truly enchanted" by the beauty he saw at the Basilica of St. Vitale and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Marchetti says

The Sustainable Market Initiative is at work with Giorgio Armani on the Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project to make style more sustainable

King Charles reunited with Federico Marchetti in the YOOX Net-a-Porter founder's hometown as they continue to use fashion as a force for good.

Exclusively speaking to PEOPLE during the King and Queen Camilla's four-day trip to Italy, Marchetti says that it was a pleasure to tour the Basilica of St. Vitale and Mausoleum of Galla Placidia with the British sovereign in Ravenna on April 10. Marchetti left Ravenna as a teenager and became an esteemed pioneer of digital fashion, founding the world's first lifestyle e-commerce site YOOX in 2000 and elevating it to the next level through a merger with Net-a-Porter a decade later.

"The fact that I was there, among the mosaics of my hometown — where I left at 18 to study in Milan and never returned permanently — and that now even King Charles, whom I work alongside, was visiting…it all felt truly magical," Marchetti tells PEOPLE.

"I’ve always thought of my life as a mosaic: every choice, every project, every beloved place has been like a small tile that, over time, helped compose a larger, harmonious, and precise design. One must dream bi but with the patience of a craftsman," he adds.

Along with a few priests and professors, Marchetti joined King Charles to explore ornate mosaics from the 5th and 6th centuries and hear about the rich history.

"What a joy it was to watch the King, amazed, appreciate the incredible mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale — mosaics he had surely read about in detail in the book Ravenna by Judith Herrin, which I gave him as a gift several years ago. In Ravenna, light becomes stone, and gold turns into storytelling," the tech entrepreneur says. "Its mosaics, among the most fascinating in the world along with those of Istanbul, speak to those who know how to look at them. The King was truly enchanted by such spiritual beauty. I must admit, I was moved once again."

According to the digital innovator, the King, 76, shared a special moment with students studying mosaics at Ravenna’s Accademia di Belle Arti (School of Fine Arts) as he did the honors of placing the final tile in a display they made.

"A tangible sign of his ongoing commitment to youth education and of his deep connection to art — a thread that runs throughout his life," Marchetti tells PEOPLE of the gesture. The mosaic depicted him and Queen Camilla on their May 2023 coronation day, and they received the piece as a gift from the city of Ravenna.

Inside the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Marchetti says the sovereign was moved once more.

"It’s a place that radiates spirituality, light, art and absolute beauty. It can rightly be called the eighth wonder of the world, and he, a true lover of culture, was utterly captivated by it," the executive says.

Marchetti and Charles have known one another for years, as the industry insider has led the Fashion Task Force from the King's Sustainable Market Initiative since 2021.

As part of that project, Marchetti and Giorgio Armani (whose company Marchetti is on the board of) have a test farm in Apulia, Italy, where Armani is growing organic-regenerative cotton used by his global brand to produce t-shirts.

"I work with him specifically on this, but with a focus on everything related to fashion, because fashion is actually a very polluting industry," Marchetti tells PEOPLE about the Apulia Regenerative Cotton Project made possible in partnership with the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance, which the King also previously founded as the Prince of Wales. "Fashion alone is more polluting than all the planes and all the ships traveling around the world. It's an important sector, and I've been doing this with him for many years now."

Commenting on the King's longtime advocacy for sustainability, he adds that this interest didn't slip when he acceded to the throne.

"He's always done it. Everyone wondered if he would continue to do it after he became King. But obviously it's an authentic passion that after 55 years one can't abandon from one day to the next. All the letters we exchange are passionate letters about the environment, about concrete projects, because he likes action, he doesn't like just talk," Marchetti says.

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He believes the King and Queen's Italy trip — which overlapped with their 20th wedding anniversary! — was a sure success.

"The visit went very well, they were received with much affection, great enthusiasm, great passion from Italy. Certainly in Ravenna when they arrived, there was a roar, truly a triumphant welcome, I would say," he says. "And His Majesty told me that he hopes to return soon, because this is his eighteenth visit, and when we were inside San Vitale, he told me he hopes to return soon."