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| The tree known as 'Baldy' (Image courtesy: AFP Relaxnews) |
AFP Relaxnews
"O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how pitifully bare are your
branches!" Romans on Tuesday were mourning the untimely death of the
Eternal City's tree, affectionately nicknamed 'Baldy'. With a week still
to go until December 25, the tree in the Italian capital's main square
of Piazza Venezia has become such a laughing stock that it led the
city's mayor to launch an investigation into what prompted Baldy's
premature demise.
"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 inquiry found that the tree was not properly
covered during transport from the Dolomites in northern Italy, where it
had been grown.
A wide range of Romans -- including environmentalists and professional
gardeners -- have opined that a tree of a more robust variety also would
have survived for longer before starting to shed. Poor Baldy is a
Norway spruce, while the European silver fir would have been a much
safer bet for a tree, these self-professed Christmas tree experts said.
Many have compared "the fir tree agony" -- which has cost the city some
48,000 euros ($57,000) -- to the governing Five Star Movement (M5S),
which won the mayorship in 2016 but has struggled with a transport and
rubbish crisis. "As if the mess they have created over the past year and
a half was not enough, we must put up with this misery," tweeted
another Roman. Il Messaggero declared it a national embarrassment,
saying that "in Russia, they've dubbed our dying tree a 'toilet brush'."
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