The tree’s defoliation initially prompted ridicule and disdain.

But after that first wave of insults, popular opinion took a turn, and Romans began leaving messages of support — thousands of them — on the tree’s branches. #Jesuissplelacchio became a trending term.

On Thursday, a lone note — suggesting that Leonardo da Vinci would be deeply distressed to learn that Spelacchio had become more famous than the Mona Lisa — was affixed to the tree’s pedestal.

“Today we are dismantling this tree that represented so much for Roman citizens, as well as for citizens of countries around the world,” Pinuccia Montanari, the city’s councilor responsible for environmental sustainability, said at a farewell ceremony for the tree on Thursday. She said that all the messages that had been left for Spelacchio would be compiled in a book.

The festivities were dampened by light rain, and also by a review carried out by Italy’s National Anti-Corruption Authority into the cost and methods of the tree’s transportation to Rome. City officials will now have to explain why they spent considerably more than they had in the previous two years to move and install the tree, although they had used the same company.

“As the days passed, ‘Spelacchio’ won over the heart and affection of most people,” Rome’s mayor, Virginia Raggi, said in a statement.