Rome to install Christmas tree in Piazza del Popolo for third year in a row.
Rome’s Christmas tree, which returns to its new location of Piazza del Popolo for the third year in a row, will be illuminated on the evening of Monday 8 December.
The 20-metre high fir tree from Como in northern Italy will be illuminated on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a public holiday in Italy.
Christmas lights along the central Via del Corso will be switched on at the same time, in a popular Roman tradition.
Rome’s Christmas tree in Piazza del Popolo pic.twitter.com/K0UgvG5bJe
— Wanted in Rome (@wantedinrome) November 29, 2024
The Christmas tree cost almost €127,000 and was financed with the support of Jubilee funds, the city said.
It will remain in place until 8 January 2026 before being taken down the next day.
Rome’s Christmas tree left behind its traditional base in Piazza Venezia in 2023 due to major works for the Metro C subway station, part of a €700 million project set to last about a decade.
The Vatican’s Christmas tree, a 27-metre-high spruce tree from the Ultimo valley in Bolzano, will be lit up in St Peter’s Square on Saturday 6 December.
Spelacchio
In 2017 Rome’s Christmas tree was christened “Spelacchio” due to the ‘mangy’ specimen whose threadbare branches drew negative news headlines in Italy and around the world.
After the initial outrage over the tree, which was compared unfavourably to a toilet brush, Spelacchio won the hearts of Romans who festooned it with ironic messages of affection and sympathy.
Many Rome residents would agree however that Spelacchio was not the city’s worst Christmas tree of all time, reserving that dubious honour for the white, artificial Christmas tree installed by former mayor Gianni Alemanno in 2011.
The short-lived tree was removed within hours but not before a Rome politician captured the general mood by calling it “the epitome of bad taste”.
In 2018 and 2019 the US streaming giant Netflix sponsored the city’s Christmas tree, however since then the city has picked up the bill.
Up until 10 years ago Rome had two giant Christmas trees: one in Piazza Venezia and one in front of the Colosseum.
However the custom of the Colosseum tree was axed on cost-cutting grounds by former mayor Virginia Raggi.
Image: Christmas tree in Piazza del Popolo, 2023. Photo Roma Capitale.
