Inside Jeff Bezos's ‘wedding of the century'
It has been dubbed 'the wedding of the century' – and now fresh details have emerged of Jeff Bezos's impending nuptials in Venice.
The world's third richest man is to marry his fiancée, the author and television journalist Lauren Sánchez, next week amid the canals, bridges and church spires of La Serenissima – as Venice was known during its 1,000-year history as a republic.
But there is nothing very serene about the lead-up to the wedding, with activists threatening to leap into canals to block the water taxis expected to ferry the couple and their entourage between wedding venues.
Protesters say that hosting the wedding is emblematic of how Venice has sold its soul to tourism at the expense of locals, who face acute housing shortages, a sky-high cost of living, the closure of basic services and the replacement of local businesses by trinket shops and trattorias.
As protest groups prepare to give the happy couple a distinctly frosty welcome, details of the wedding have begun to emerge, from where guests such as Lady Gaga will be staying to where the billionaire's two private yachts will be moored.
Mr Bezos, 61, is expected to arrive in the lagoon next week aboard his 417ft yacht the Koru. The largest sailing yacht in the world, it boasts three tall masts and cost $500 million (£372 million) to construct. It is currently anchored near an idyllic island off the coast of Croatia.
But that's not all. The Koru will be accompanied by a support ship – an equally huge vessel called the Abeona.
It is equipped with a helicopter pad – a requirement that is de rigueur for Ms Sánchez, who is a qualified helicopter pilot. The vessel may help transport the 27 outfit changes that the bride will reportedly go through, with gowns designed by the likes of Oscar de la Renta and Dolce & Gabbana.
There will be another seven vessels of various kinds to provide transport for guests, who are expected to include the British actor Orlando Bloom and his long-time fiancée Katy Perry, Mick Jagger, Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Oprah Winfrey, Eva Longoria and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Mr Bezos's fellow tech titans Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are also expected at the multi-million dollar shindig.
As befits a man worth $230 billion, Mr Bezos has booked the most luxurious suites in Venice's finest hotels for his guests.
They include the Aman, a five-star hotel on the banks of the Grand Canal that boasts private gardens and Rococo works of art, as well as the equally swanky Gritti Palace, the Danieli, the Marriott and the St Regis – where Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner will reportedly stay. Her father Donald Trump may even reportedly make an appearance at the wedding.
A short distance away from the Grand Canal is the Belmond Cipriani on the island of Giudecca, which is expected to host Lady Gaga, who is rumoured to perform for the newlyweds.
Wedding celebrations and cocktail receptions will reportedly be held in Palazzo Pisani Moretta, a historic building in the heart of Venice, as well as the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a Renaissance building, and the Hotel Excelsior on the Lido, the slender island that separates the Venetian lagoon from the Adriatic.
The wedding is likely to cost around $16 million (£11,889,016), according to one detailed breakdown.
The sum includes up to $1 million (£743,000) for flowers and the decoration of the various venues, up to $3 million (£2,229,190) for wedding planners, $2 million (£1,486,127) for the hire of the venues, $1 million for the catering and $1.5 million (£1,114,595) for the bride's dresses.
There will also be mooring fees for Mr Bezos's superyachts and the cost of providing lavish gifts for the guests, who include Hollywood celebrities and members of the Trump clan.
Luxury hotel suites will make up around $2 million of the overall cost, according to Manuela Pivato, the founder of an online publication called MyFairVenice.
She told D Donna, an Italian women's magazine: 'A suite at the Hotel Cipriani costs about 14,000 euros a night and the hotel recently restored 13 of its top suites.'
Hair and makeup, not just for the bride but for her guests, will also cost a bomb.
Ms Pivato added: 'For George Clooney's wedding, 50 hairdressers came from Rome. We can estimate a cost of around 500,000 euros.'
The two possible wedding venues – the Fondazione Cini on the island of San Giorgio and the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice itself – are both large, meaning that they will need a wealth of flower arrangements and other decorations. Ms Pivato said the overall bill for three different locations could easily reach $1 million.
Between 35 and 50 sleek wooden water taxis have been hired out for the event.
Mario Gasparini, a water taxi operator, told La Repubblica newspaper: 'The exact routes are being kept a secret. We will only discover who our passengers are and where we are taking them the day before the wedding service.'
The lavish affair is expected to bring revenue to the city, with water taxi operators earning about 15,000 euros (£12,800) each over five days. Mr Gasparini says the event should be embraced, adding: 'Most Venetians are not protesting – it is just the usual 150 communist extremists who are opposed to everything.'
The wedding ceremony itself may be held in a complex of historic buildings known as the Fondazione Cini on the island of San Giorgio, opposite St Mark's Square.
Fireworks will light up the sky as the couple say their vows and exchange rings.
Last week, activists climbed to the top of the bell tower on the island, let off coloured smoke bombs and unfurled a giant banner with a large red cross scrawled across the word 'Bezos'. They hung a similar banner from the Rialto Bridge.
The protesters were from an umbrella group called No Space for Bezos, a slogan that plays on the billionaire's ownership of Blue Origin, the space rocket venture.
In a statement, campaigners said: 'Venice is not for sale, it is not for rent, it should not be the backdrop for the wedding of one of the world's richest men.
'As Venetians, we are ready to defend the dignity of our city. Those who expect Venice to be docile and subservient, happy to gather the crumbs that fall from the king's table, will be disappointed. What we did today is just a taste of what is to come.'
The protesters have threatened to hurl themselves into canals to impede the arrival of Mr Bezos and his bride-to-be at their wedding ceremony.
Tommaso Cacciari, an activist from No Space for Bezos, said: 'To block their arrival peacefully, we will jump into the canals that surround the venue, and we will also block the alleyways that lead to it.
'Bezos is not just any VIP – he is a multi-billionaire who supports the world view of Trump.'
He added that by choosing the World Heritage city as his wedding venue, the Amazon founder was 'confusing Venice with Las Vegas'.
While the activists have commanded plenty of attention, they have been sharply criticised by other Venetians, who say the city should be honoured to host such a high-profile wedding.
Simone Venturini, Venice's councillor in charge of tourism, said: 'I struggle to understand how a private event like this, which won't cause any kind of stress to the city, can be considered detrimental.
'Each year Venice hosts hundreds of events, of every type. Is it Venice's fault that it is the most beautiful city in the world? We should all be proud that the wedding of Jeff Bezos will be held in our lagoon.'
He said the protests and banners had been organised by 'the usual' Left-wing activists who have campaigned in the past against giant cruise ships, mass tourism and the entrance fee for day trippers which was imposed last year.
He also asked whether the spray canisters that the activists had used to create their banners 'were bought on Amazon'.
The governor of Veneto, the region that includes Venice, also criticised the protests. Luca Zaia said that the banners strung from the bell tower on San Giorgio island and the Rialto Bridge sent an 'unacceptable' message to the world.
Mr Zaia told Corriere della Sera newspaper: 'The history of La Serenissima is cosmopolitan, a story of openness. We have warehouses that were built by Germans, by Turks, we have the oldest Jewish ghetto in the world. Our cuisine is influenced by spices that came from other parts of the world. Our history has never been about forbidding entry to anyone.'
The governor, a heavyweight in the conservative League party, said only around 200 guests have been invited to the wedding – a number that Venice can easily handle given that, during the busiest periods of the year, 150,000 tourists descend on the place each day.
He added: 'What message are we sending? That Venice is not a welcoming city? That we are going to start squirting tourists with water pistols? Tourism is Venice's main business, it's worth 18 billion euros a year and we all benefit from it, even people who don't work in the sector.'
The Bezos wedding will pump between 20 and 30 million euros into Venice's economy, Mr Zaia said.
He conceded that there was a need for tourist numbers to be better managed as tourist hordes overwhelm an ever-dwindling population of residents. The city's population has dropped from 175,000 in 1950 to around 48,000.
The governor said Venice had managed to host celebrity weddings in the past without much disruption, including that of George Clooney and British-Lebanese human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014. Unlike the impending Bezos wedding, the Clooney nuptials attracted barely a whiff of dissent among Venetians.
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