Guests descend on Venice for Jeff Bezos wedding - amid last-minute change after protests

Sky News

7 hours ago

Guests have begun arriving in Venice for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's multimillion-pound wedding, which has had to find a new venue.
The billionaire will marry Lauren Sanchez in the Italian city this week, and the couple will mark the occasion with three days of celebrations costing up to €48m (£41m).
The venue where the couple will say their vows has been kept secret, but their wedding party has at the last minute been moved out of the city centre, Reuters news agency reports.
It had been due to take place at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia but will now be held at the Arsenale, a source told Reuters.
The new venue is a 14th-century complex surrounded by water and impossible to reach by land when bridges are raised.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's wedding in numbers
€48m price tag
The wedding and its part are expected to cost an eye-watering €40-48m (£34-£41m), Luca Zaia, the president of Venice's local government, said on Tuesday.
This includes sizeable charity donations from the Amazon founder, including €1m (£850k) to Corila, a consortium that studies Venice's lagoon ecosystem, local media has reported.
90 private jets
The first private jets began landing at Venice airport on Tuesday and there will be around 90 in total, Mr Zaia said.
They won't all be arriving in Venice though, as some will land at the nearby Treviso and Verona airports.
250 guests
Five of the city's most luxurious hotels have been booked out to host an estimated 200-250 guests.
These include the celeb favourite Cipriani, where George and Amal Clooney married in 2014.
30 water taxis
Attendees of course won't be hopping on public water buses to get around the city's many islands.
The wedding's organisers have booked at least 30 water taxis for them to use instead.
Amid the last-minute changes, guests, including Donald Trump's daughter, have begun arriving in Italy.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, were seen boarding a water taxi at Venice airport on Tuesday, as was fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.
The move comes after weeks of protests from some local residents and pressure groups, who say Bezos and his fiancee are not welcome in the city.
The leader of the 'No Space for Bezos' campaign said: "The news that Bezos has run away from the Misericordia is a great victory for us."
The group has announced more protests for Saturday, believed to be the main day of celebrations, and pledged to make the event a "nightmare" for Bezos and his guests.