Venice hosts Jeff Bezos' grand wedding with stars, yachts and protests

Emma Bubola 

Private jets soared above Venice’s archipelago, and towering superyachts slipped through its lagoon. Caterers baked buttery Venetian delicacies while protesters schemed. Bomb-sniffing dogs prowled the verdant island of San Giorgio Maggiore, in front of the Doge’s Palace. Venice, the city built by merchants and tradesmen, girded itself this week for the nuptials of the doge of commerce of the digital age. 

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire tech entrepreneur, newspaper owner turned jacked tabloid fixture and A-list mingler, was set to celebrate his wedding to the energetic broadcaster Lauren Sánchez in a city that centuries ago set the standard for sumptuous, flashy ostentation. 

From Thursday and for three days, the frescoed ancient homes of bankers and tradesmen that made Venice rich, now emptied of their residents and brimming with scented orchids, were ready to be turned over to influencers, rappers, pop stars and Ivanka Trump — all among the expected guests. 

San Giorgio, where emperors once met with popes, would host the patron of Amazon.com. 

City officials and business owners were proud, happy about the money and the prestige the event brings, and they welcomed the wedding, which was expected to stretch across several of the city’s islands, as a confirmation of Venice’s status as a world wonder. 

But for many of the people who have made the uncommon choice to stay in an impractical city rendered almost unlivable by tourism in the easyJet age, the event was a climax of the city’s betrayal, an American-size display of its contradictions. It was the capitulation of Venice’s identity, they said, reduced to a glittery backdrop for the family photos of the world’s new oligarchy. 

Venice’s left-leaning grass-roots groups, small but popular among its dwindling but determined residents, threatened to obstruct the wedding. The protesters, who have adopted the slogan “No space for Bezos,” appear to have already met some of their goals. The party planned at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, which the protesters intended to block, was moved to another location. The booking for Bezos’ superyacht to dock in Venice was cancelled. Venice’s authorities were furious about the protests, which they called “reputational damage” to the city. 

In many ways, Venice was a no-brainer wedding destination for the Bezos-Sánchez pair, who since their relationship became public six years ago have engaged in a global parade of affection and high-gloss good life. Venice, a city largely built as an unapologetic declaration of wealth and power, with gilded palaces in polychrome marbles, frescoes and canvases by Renaissance masters, designed to impress and entertain on a grand scale, seemed like a perfect fit.