(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 19 - A 200-year-old fir tree that was one of the most beloved features of a Lake Garda town has been chopped down to be taken to Rome as the traditional St Peter's Christmas Tree despite a long and impassioned local protest.
    The fir in the Val di Ledro got the axe despite a series of torch-lit vigils aimed at "saving our fond Green Giant.
    "We are very sorry for the felling of a 31-meter fir tree," said Lorenzo Vescovi, one of the first to raise the protest against the felling.
    "What will arrive in Rome will be a dying living being. "Our battle does not stop, we want to prevent trees from being felled in this valley and anywhere else for a cruel and anachronistic custom".
    The Vatican said "the choice to fell the tree was an ecological one".
    It said "the tree was cut down in order to favour the correct cultivation of the forest". (ANSA).