That it’s VIP, Venice: fashion, show-business and tech stars, tourists mingled in the Italian city on Thursday on the eve of the sumptuous wedding of Jeff Bezos, “M. Amazon”, and the ex-journalist and presenter Lauren Sanchez.
The festivities, scheduled for Thursday to Saturday, fascinate onlookers and the Italian press, but divide the inhabitants of the Cité des Doges.
Some are delighted that the billionaire has chosen it to marry by raining dollars’ suitcases, others denounce the privatization for ultra -ties of this fragile lacustrine setting that the surcourism and the rise in waters due to global warming threatens.
“Surprise is the consequence of day tourists, who […] Serve very much in the city. It is this tourism that must be limited, not the one who transforms Venice into a small monte-carlo, ”says Silvestri, 55, trader.
On the lagoon stand the yachts, whose ridges stuck with satellite antennas mix with the arrows of the churches, the domes of the palaces and the sea birds.
On board the famous Venetian engine canoes circulate from one island to another of the guests flanked by their bodyguards, immediately spinned by other canoes rented at gold prices by the media around the world.
Christine Baker, a 51 -year -old American tourist, sees as “an excessive display of wealth and greed”. “I understand why people are upset,” says this Birmingham teacher in Alabama.
On the contrary, these feasts are a boon in the eyes of Adriana, an 83 -year -old Venetian: “Everyone wins, taxis [bateaux]luxury hotels. If they don’t take advantage of it, who will take advantage of it? »»
Hollywood and Gondole
According to the Italian press, Jeff Bezos, 61, and Lauren Sanchez, 55, must exchange alliances and wishes this Friday on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore which faces the Arsenal, the former shipyard of the Sérénissime dating from the time when his fleet dominated the Mediterranean.
Saturday, at the Arsenal, where the art biennial is usually held, a large ball is announced. Among the 200 guests would be Leonardo DiCaprio, Elton John, Mick Jagger, Lady Gaga and Orlando Bloom.
AFP photographers saw Ivanka Trump, the daughter of the President of the United States, who came with her husband Jared Kushner and their children, Kim Kardashian and his family members, the American stylist Spencer Antle, the star presenter Oprah Winfrey and Queen Rania of Jordan.
This luxury debauchery aroused a controversy in Venice, where some fear that the guests and their entourage will make their city, already invaded by tourists, even more unlivable.
Some 100,000 tourists sleep in the city during the high season, to which are added tens of thousands of day visitors, including many gigantic cruise ships, while the city’s population is in free fall.
“I think that leads to a lot of economic activity in the region, but I can also understand that the Venetians do not appreciate seeing hundreds of people arriving and prices are soaring,” said Mike Leblanc, a 48 -year -old Canadian.
“Venice is not for sale”
11 years ago, the marriage of actor George Clooney had not made waves in the lagoon. But Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, turns out to be more divisive, especially because of the controversies about the treatment by Amazon of its employees.
The carbon footprint of guests also raises questions, and Greenpeace continues to denounce the staggering sums spent while the fragile balance of Venice “flows under the weight of the climate crisis”.
The NGO has deployed this week a huge banner on Saint-Marc Square with a photo of Bezos Riant and this legend: “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more taxes”.
“Bezos’ marriage has no logical link with the question of surcourism” and it will have “no impact on the city,” the Tourism Assistant to the Town Hall, Simone Venturini.
Built over the centuries on islets in the lagoon, the city has set up a controversial entry ticket for day visitors, but some require a more ambitious policy to fight against the housing crisis imputed for a tourist rental.
A collective of inhabitants, No Space for Bezos, multiplies the symbolic manifestations to oppose rejoicing.
“Venice, it is also people who live there with poorly paid and precarious jobs”, often in tourism, underlines Tommaso Cacciari, spokesperson for this collective, interviewed by AFP. He regrets the “ostentatious” presence of “popular districts” yachts of the city.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez would have asked their guests not to offer them a wedding gift. Donations must, on the other hand, be paid to the United Nations Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) “to preserve the irreplaceable cultural heritage” of Venice, according to a press release from the couple quoted by the media.
