Later on, they are due to see Rome’s anti-terrorist prosecution office, which has already opened an investigation into their abduction.
"I’m feeling such enormous joy: this is the news I have been waiting for a long time. I am so, so happy," Salvatore Marzullo, Vanessa's father, said.
Italy’s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, for his part, welcomed the news "with great joy and a huge sigh of relief."
The Italian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that their release was the result of "intense work by team Italy," but officials have so far declined to elaborate on the circumstances behind the release of Ramelli and Marzullo.
The women, from Lombardy in northern Italy, had been working for the aid group Horryaty when they were abducted in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo on July 31, 2014.
In a video released on December 31, 2014, the women, who had been dressed in black robes and headscarves, called on the Italian government to do its best to free them.
"We are in big danger and we could be killed. The government and its militaries are responsible for our lives," one of the women said.
The group responsible for taking the women captive was the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's branch in Syria.
