Tree has been dubbed ‘spelacchio’, meaning bald or mangy, after it lost most of its pine needles

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Romans are up in arms over the city’s Christmas tree that has been dubbed “Spelacchio”, which roughly translated means mangy or baldy.

The tree, which died and lost its needles two weeks after being erected in the capital’s Piazza Venezia, has become a symbol of what many see as the eternal city’s eternal decay.

“It’s a disgrace. It hurts even to look at this Christmas tree,” one Roman resident said, using an Italian term suggesting it looked like a plucked chicken.

“How can they have put it in Rome, a capital city like Rome,” said the woman, who declined to give her name.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Rome’s official Christmas tree stands in front of the Unknown Soldier monument in Piazza Venezia Square. Photograph: Alessandra Tarantino/AP

“Rome’s tree is dry, dead on arrival. It’s a metaphor for the state of the capital,” one local wrote on Twitter, while another wondered: “What time does the funeral start?”

According to Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, a preliminary enquiry found that the tree was not properly covered during transport from the Dolomites in northern Italy, where it had been grown. Some have even likened “Spelacchio” to a toilet brush.

Many Romans on social media have pointed a finger for the embarrassment at Mayor Virginia Raggi, a leading light in the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, who has been criticised over the dire state of the city.

Rome has fallen into disrepair and degradation in recent years, with streets full of pot holes, piles of garbage and unkempt public gardens where weeds grow as tall as a person.

Even Pope Francis has decried the state of the city.

Any hope that this year’s 20m (65ft) tree could bring some Christmas cheer faded quickly. “It is clearly dead and it represents a shameful spectacle for citizens and tourists,” said the consumers’ group Codacons.

Codacons called for investigation into why nearly €50,000 (£44,000) was spent to transport the sickly tree to Rome from a forest near the Austrian border 700km (430 miles) away.

“The one at the Vatican is much better. They should swap them,” said Francois Mallet, a tourist from France.

Romans pointedly enviously to the fine Christmas tree put up in the heart of the northern city of Milan, seeing it as another sign of how the Italian financial capital has overtaken the nation’s official capital in terms of wealth and prestige.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tourists take pictures near the controversial Christmas tree. Photograph: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images

The saga of “Spelacchio” has taken off on social media, with its own hashtag and handle on Twitter.

Il Messaggero declared it a national embarrassment, saying: “In Russia, they’ve dubbed our dying tree a ‘toilet brush’.”

Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.