Nightmare on Elm Street

We've often chuckled over the devastation that Joe's Tree-Trimming Service (our name for the city workers who do the job) leaves in its wake here in Rome: whole tree-lined streets lacking a single leaf. This time the joke's on us. After the winds of April 27, which brought down one of the bushy trees next door (see entry for April 28), the city or our municipio (a section of the city with considerable autonomy) apparently decided that the rest of them were at risk. Bring on the Rome Chain Saw Massacre. The pics here--from our terrace on via Ghislieri--were taken this morning, ten minutes apart.

In Rome's climate, trees trimmed so drastically do quite well (they look presentable after two years), and we are willing to give the authorities the benefit of the doubt that the work on our street was done with the best interests of area residents in mind. However, this morning's La Repubblica reports on excessive pruning--trees reduced to stumps--in via Avezzana and via Panama, on Monte Mario, and along the banks of the Tevere, while suggesting that the hatchet jobs in those areas may have been the result of misguided efforts to save money and time.

Bill