Rome was braced for violent protests against President Bush, with 10,000 police mobilised and hundreds of prisoners being moved out of the Regina Coeli prison to make room for arrested demonstrators. Yesterday morning, however, their cells remained empty.

A peace march marking Mr Bush's arrival in Italy on Wednesday numbered no more than 2,000 people, most of whom went home when it began to rain. At earlier stops in Slovenia and Germany there were no visible signs of dissent at all. A President whose previous visits to Europe generated waves of anger is this week stirring only ripples of irritation in a sea of apathy.

“Bush is not even popular in the role of the enemy any more,” wrote Berlin's Tagesspiegel newspaper. The closest that he came to controversy in Germany was when he attacked the country's media for suggesting that he did not like asparagus. “You're wrong,” he told a press conference. “The German asparagus are fabulous.”

As Mr Bush enters his final six months in office, much of Europe has started to look beyond his presidency, draining leftwingers and opponents of the Iraq war of the energy to voice their loathing for him.

In Paris today, the Communist Party is rousing itself for a rally against Mr Bush, Nato and the war. It is not, however, expected to be big. When he arrives in France Mr Bush will dare to proclaim that his successor will inherit a “revitalised relationship between Europe and America”, not least because of a “new era” of leaders such as Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Angela Merkel in Germany, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy - and Gordon Brown.

The President's visit to London on Sunday will, inevitably, prompt a demonstration in Parliament Square by the Stop the War coalition, but it is likely to be counted in the hundreds, rather than the hundreds of thousands who marched down Whitehall during his state visit in 2003. This time police have denied them permission to protest outside Downing Street while Mr Bush dines with the Prime Minister.

In Rome yesterday Mr Berlusconi made a slightly inappropriate joke about the age of John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, before pouring praise on the courage, idealism and vision of “my very good friend” Mr Bush. He has offered to increase his country's contribution to the Nato military mission in Afghanistan and seeks Italy's inclusion - as a hardline member - in a team of countries negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme. Even such staunch support for US foreign policy could not stir leftists into action.

Outside the Quirinale Palace, where Mr Bush was having lunch, a policeman was asleep in his van. Others stood around smoking. Andrea Rossi hurried past the cordon with barely a glance. “Bush has been a bad president,” he said. “I am anxious for Obama to take over from him.” Asked why he was not protesting, Mr Rossi shrugged, saying: “It's too usual - we've had too many demonstrations.”

The President's convoy had driven through streets dotted with occasional clumps of onlookers - but no protesters - to the American Academy, where he urged an audience of young Italians to get the “first-hand truth” about his country rather than rely on misinformation and propaganda.

Before flying to France today Mr Bush will visit the Vatican, where he will receive an unusually informal welcome from Pope Benedict XVI, who is abandoning protocol by meeting him at St John's Tower, rather than the papal library. They will stroll in the Vatican gardens and be serenaded by the Sistine Chapel choir. Father Federico Lombardi, the Pope's spokesman, said that the welcome intended to repay the President for “the cordiality of the meeting at the White House” in April.

For most residents of Rome, the arrival of Mr Bush on his final tour of Europe has meant merely disruption and inconvenience. Mobile phone signals are blocked and routes through the city centre closed. “Bush visit tries the patience of the Romans,” said the newspaper Il Messaggero. Pierro Proetti, a taxi driver, put it more bluntly: “I hate Bush - and I tell you why - he has messed up our traffic.”

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