Name it “No House for Bezos” versus “Welcome, Mr. Amazon!”
The three-day wedding ceremony celebrations being held in Venice by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez are stirring up international media buzz. However in Italy, in addition to a paparazzi feeding frenzy, the lavish nuptials are prompting heated political polemic.
On Saturday, the marriage held Friday amid tight safety on the island of San Giorgio within the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore designed by sixteenth century architect Andrea Palladio with visitors together with Leonardo DiCaprio and Italian supermodel Vittoria Ceretti, Orlando Bloom, the Kardashians and Jenners, Mick Jagger, Oprah Winfrey, Invoice Gates, and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner was splashed everywhere in the entrance pages of the Italian press.
“The lagoon offered the situation, the American billionaire introduced the forged,” wrote left-leaning La Repubblica in a scathing editorial that underlined how the island of San Giorgio can also be the backdrop for sixteenth century painter Paolo Veronese’s “The Marriage ceremony Feast at Cana” which is is the most important portray hanging within the Louvre. “The previous political objective of the marriage has now been transposed into modern delicate energy,” the editorial famous. “It’s the identical previous story: get married in public to inform the world who’s in cost.”
The extra centrist Corriere della Sera, in addition to loads of colour, featured an interview with Venice mayor Luigi Brugnaro titled “I’m proud they’re right here, I hope they arrive again.” The mayor within the interview rebuffs accusations that Venice has been “militarized” – together with, reportedly, with using a personal military of ex-marines employed by Bezos to ensure the waterways are safe – by saying: “How are you going to criticize using safety forces when till a couple of days in the past we had been risking a world warfare and now now we have the daughter of the president of the US on the town?”
Right here’s how Corriere della Sera summed up the Bezos-Sánchez wedding ceremony in numbers: “200 invited visitors. 3 days of events. 27 costume modifications for Lauren Sánchez.”
The “No House for Bezos” campaigners – who declare the lagoon metropolis is turning into a personal playground for the wealthy to the detriment of native inhabitants, amid rampant “overtourism” — have scored a partial victory after threatening to fill the canals with inflatable crocodiles. The mega-party was initially deliberate on the luxurious sixteenth century Scuola Grande della Misericordia constructing, and relocated to Venice’ historical Arsenale shipyards situated farther from town middle.
Countering the protester’s “overtourism” narrative, Rome day by day “Il Messaggero” on Saturday revealed a report issued by Italy’s right-wing Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanché that claims that within the first months of 2025, Venice recorded a 6.7% drop in in a single day stays. In line with the report the Bezos-Sánchez wedding ceremony may have an “financial influence” on Venice price €957 million $1.1 billion, or nearly 68% of Venice’s annual tourism turnover.
In the meantime, on a extra frivolous observe, Corriere devoted a bit to the marriage’s safety particulars. Apart from the ex-marines reportedly employed by Bezos, they contain greater than 100 Italian anti-riot paramilitary police, plus a bomb-sniffing labrador retriever named Elvis.
