Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more
Come Tuesday, Venetians will have a new spectacle on the horizon. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is sailing into the city on his $500 million superyacht to marry his fiancée, former journalist Lauren Sanchez, in what is expected to be a spectacular display of wealth and pomp. Over three days (from June 24 to 26), Bezos and Sanchez’s guest list of Hollywood A-listers are set to invade the historic city, filling its waterways and luxury hotels. In a city that constantly strains against the swell of overtourism, it could prove the straw that breaks the camel’s back, locals tell The Independent.
Last week, demonstrators took to the Rialto bridge — one of Venice’s most famous landmarks — where they hung a giant banner reading “No Space for Bezos,” a nod to the billionaire’s space exploration company, Blue Origin. One of the protesters, Marta Sottoriva, said the wedding is yet another example of “the massive problem of overtourism” in the northern Italian city. She told The Independent that allowing the billionaire to have his wedding in Venice creates the idea that “a city can be sold to the highest bidder with the most money.”
This sentiment resonates deeply with locals, who often feel overshadowed by the influx of wealthy visitors. These temporary guests don’t contend with Venice’s long-term challenges, like access to healthcare or education. “A lot of local people feel that there’s actually a mission to push them away to create more space for economic profit,” Sottoriva said.
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Venice’s newest power couple: Bezos and Sanchez turn the floating city into their wedding stage (AFP/Getty)
Of course, it’s hard to compete with the kind of cash flow that Bezos — who is worth around $230 billion — can provide. The wedding is estimated to cost anywhere from $11.5 million to upwards of $21.5 million, much of which will be injected into the city. About 30 of Venice’s 280 water taxis have been reserved for the weekend, city hall officials said in a statement. Meanwhile, the five major luxury hotels along the Grand Canal, comprising the Belmond Hotel Cipriani, the St. Regis Venice, the Gritti Palace, the Hotel Danieli and the Grand Aman Hotel — where George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin celebrated their wedding in 2014 — are all almost entirely booked for the last weekend of June.
No locations for receptions or afterparties have been confirmed, but one report claims the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a majestic 14th-century Venetian landmark, was also reserved for the occasion. The couple has also booked local suppliers such as Rosa Salva, the city’s oldest pastry maker, and Laguna B, a design studio known for its distinctive handblown Murano glass. Salva told the Associated Press that it’s “prestigious” for Venice to be selected for the wedding, and that it should bring “quality tourism.”
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About 30 of Venice’s 280 water taxis have been reserved for the three-day wedding (AFP/Getty)
The city’s mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, addressed the wedding back in March, denying claims that he booked a large number of hotel rooms, gondolas, and water taxis for the event. “We are mutually working and supporting the organizers to ensure that the event will be absolutely respectful of the fragility and uniqueness of the city,” he said in a statement to People magazine at the time. “The many speculations and fake news circulating about Jeff Bezos’ wedding are completely unfounded,” the municipality added in its own statement, saying its “utmost priority to make sure the city functions as normal, for all, with no abnormal disruption to anyone.”
However, Sottoriva believes it is a “lie that this wedding is going to bring wealth and visibility to the city.”
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The wedding ceremony itself is reportedly taking place on Bezos’s $500 million superyacht, Koru (Getty)
“It doesn’t need visibility,” she added. “Twenty, 30 million tourists per year is too much, and also, we must avoid getting caught up in the financial aspect because we know events like these only benefit a small group of people — luxury hotel owners, taxi drivers, and catering services. The jobs created are often precarious, without contracts, and people are not paid a lot more than usual. So there’s nothing benefiting the local economy.”
Sottoriva also pointed to broader frustrations with Bezos as a figure, highlighting his extreme wealth and the struggles of Amazon workers. “We would have contested him even if he wasn’t coming for a wedding,” she said. However, not all Venetians share her perspective. Matteo Secchi, the president of Venessia.com, a residents’ activist group, told The Independent he doesn’t think overtourism can be connected to Bezos’s wedding. “There’s only 200 people coming from the wedding, and then the locations of the weddings are outside the normal tourist routes,” he said. “I will be so angry if they stop the Grand Canal from running, for example. If I have to go to my job, don’t block the street because Jeff Bezos is coming.”
Secchi wasn’t convinced the wedding deserved the level of criticism it was receiving, especially given its relatively small scale compared to the “billions of people” who contribute to overtourism globally. Tourism is an important part of the economy of a city, but at the same time, overtourism is a double-edged sword,” he said. “Venice is small, and so sometimes we have trouble with the visitors because there’s no space. Tourists are enjoying their vacation, but we are living. We have to go to school and work, to the bank and the supermarket, and we find the streets lined with people.”
As the wedding quickly approaches, Sottoriva said No Space for Bezos is still finalizing plans for their three-day protest. “We are going to have a big, colorful, non-violent demonstration,” she said. “We’re speaking out against a system that allows ultra-rich men to buy a city for three days.”
