Italy'a anti-corruption authority
ANAC has found fault with Rome's handling of its
maligned-then-praised 'mangy' Christmas tree, Spelacchio.
ANAC, acting on a complaint, said that the tree cost about
the same as two trees, placed in two parts of the city including
Spelacchio's location Piazza Venezia, did in 2015.
It also said the transport, positioning and removal of the
tree had been entrusted to the same firm for the last three
years, without respecting rotation principles.
ANAC said it had recently sent Rome city hall its dossier on
the case, requesting a response within 30 days, both on the
contract and the spending.
ANAC was acting on a complaint from centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) member Marco Palumbo.
Rome will bid farewell to Spelacchio at a party for the
now-famous tree on Thursday.
The once-derided Spelacchio is set for a new life as souvenir
blocks of wood and a hut where mothers can nurse and look after
their children after its stay in Rome's central Piazza Venezia
ends.
"Spelacchio has won the love and affection of most people
over time," Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi said Tuesday, announcing
what she called the 'Baby Little Home' that will be made of it
after it is removed Thursday.
Recalling the world news headlines it has generated, she said
"it has become an international star, and now it will become an
example of recycling and re-use".
She said mothers would be able to look after their children
in the 'home', which would have "an armchair for nursing mums to
feed their babies, as well as a play table for the young ones".
One block of the tree will also be handed over to an artist
to be remodelled and go on permanent show, the mayor said.
Councillor Pinucica Montanari said Spelacchio will now gain
fresh fame as "the symbol of a circular economy, ever more
necessary for Rome's future and that of the new generations".
Raggi's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement said Spelacchio
would get a send-off Thursday with a "farewell party" in Piazza
Venezia.
The messages and wishes that tourists and Romans have hung on
its boughs will be turned into a book, they said.
First slammed as a threadbare disgrace resembling a toilet
brush, Spelacchio gradually gathered defenders and ended its
days as a 'tree of desires' on which selfie-snapping tourists
posted their wishes.
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