When George and Amal Clooney tied the knot in Venice in 2014, bringing the lagoon city to a standstill by blocking off the Grand Canal and filling its narrow alleys with celebrities and paparazzi, Venetians embraced the spectacle, proud to once again flaunt their hometown’s beauty and romance.
But news this week that Venice will host the nuptials between Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, and Lauren Sánchez, a former TV journalist, has not quite been met with the same reception.
The seed for the three-day event, due to take place between 24 and 26 June, was reportedly planted by the Italian fashion designer Domenico Dolce, who last year mentioned to Morris Ceron, the chief of staff at Venice’s council, that the couple were on the hunt for a magical destination to get married.
According to reports in the Italian press, wedding planners have fully booked five of Venice’s plushest hotels and reserved almost the entire fleet of the city’s water taxis as well as a dock for Bezos’s mega-yacht. Hundreds of guests are expected, possibly even the US president, Donald Trump.
Far from decrying overtourism, which has intensified in Venice in the 11 years since the Clooneys’ big day, leading to the introduction last year of an access charge for pesky day-trippers, Luigi Brugnaro, the city’s mayor, publicly thanked Ceron for luring the couple. “The event will have economic repercussions worth millions of euros for our city,” he told the Veneto edition of Corriere della Sera.
But not everyone sees it that way.
“It’s going to be a great big nuisance,” said Francesca, a tour guide. “I think most people are of the same opinion. We are exasperated by a whole series of problems related to overtourism and this is the umpteenth thing foisted on the city that we have to suffer.”
The Clooney wedding was also a nuisance for Francesca because it caused “a lot of confusion and was impossible to move around”, but the actor and his bride, a human rights barrister, were well liked. “They were very kind, and easy-going, they perhaps seemed less invasive,” she said. “We have no idea what kind of behaviour to expect from this lot.”
Those rumoured to be on the guest list include Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Eva Longoria, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Orlando Bloom and his fiancee, Katy Perry. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, have also reportedly been invited. Bezos and Sánchez had front-row seats at Trump’s inauguration in January, meaning his attendance is highly possible too.
It is unclear where exactly the wedding will take place, although it could be held at the Doge’s Palace, which was the seat of power during Venice’s years as a republic.
Giusi Giudice, another tour guide, said Venice was used to hosting big events and with everyone earning from the occasion, she was unable to grasp why people were complaining. “Are they just envious of the rich? It didn’t seem to matter with the Clooneys, but here we have a billionaire who is a Trumpian and so is maybe perceived as less pleasant,” she said.
Matteo Secchi, who leads Venessia.com, a residents’ activist group, said everyone, “whether rich or poor”, was welcome to Venice. “However, what bothers us is that we bend over backwards because a rich guy is coming. We are the city that sells itself to the highest bidder.”
The social media accounts of Venezia Non è Disneyland (Venice Isn’t Disneyland), a group set up by young Venetians with the aim of sensitising visitors to the city, were filled with comments in response to the Bezos nuptials, with one person joking that tariffs should be imposed on weddings in Europe. “We are waiting for more details before making an official comment,” said one of the activists from the group. “But the city hosted Pope Francis [last year]. Therefore I think we can tolerate this kind of wedding too.”
