Rome residents seem to have embraced the pathetic state of their city's Christmas tree, which has become the butt of jokes around the world, hanging notes on "spelacchio" (The Mangy One).
"RIP - riposa in pellet" (rest in pellets) said one sign on Saturday. Another was a lament written from the sparse tree's point of view, bemoaning how ugly it had become since reaching the Italian capital.
Others left "gifts" for the city under the 21-metre red spruce from the Val di Fiemme in the Dolomites, including a tyre destroyed by one of Rome's many potholes.
Despite the tree's 600 silver-colored decorative balls, the half-bare branches lend the square a forlorn rather than festive look Source: AAP
Many see the tree, which cost the city about 50,000 euros ($A78,000), as a symbol of poor city management, filling Mayor Virginia Raggi's Facebook page with their grievances. Raggi said earlier this week that she will request compensation for the spindly tree.
Rome's "spelacchio" even has a parody Twitter account commiserating its status with messages like, "I have more followers than branches."
"It is the perfect representation of Rome today: sad, inadequate, lonely," the Corriere della Sera newspaper said in a recent editorial.
