Venetians can't move for famous faces as Bezos wedding nears finale

Times

6 hours ago

On the tiny Venetian island of San Pietro di Castello, an idyll off the beaten track, a party is about to start.
This is not the final bash of the 'wedding of the century' that was due to get under way next door over a high wall in the Arsenale but rather the neighbourhood's own annual street party, which has been running at least since the 1700s, when it was painted by the artist Canaletto.
'[Jeff] Bezos is no bother to us. Venice hosts a lot of events like that,' said Paolo Basili, one of the organisers of the five-day street party, which features food, book recitals, visits to the church and a regatta commemorating the 10th-century rescue of 12 local brides after they were kidnapped by pirates.
On Saturday night, dancing and live music were promised, rivalling the star-studded concert just over the wall. 'Their party is next door but ours is the important one,' Basili said.
During the three-day wedding of Bezos, the Amazon boss, and the former journalist Lauren Sánchez, ordinary Venetians and tourists found themselves sharing narrow alleys and crowded canals with the international super-rich and Hollywood stars. They could bump into the Kardashian clan shopping, or the Microsoft founder Bill Gates checking out Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, his illustration of the perfect human form, which is on display at a Venice exhibition.
Despite being worth an estimated $117 billion, Gates queued on Friday behind other tourists to buy his ticket for the show. He perhaps mentioned the rare chance to see the sketch to his fellow guest Ivanka Trump because she showed up on Saturday to see it, just as the newlyweds popped into Harry's Bar for lunch.
The wedding was by turns a private affair but also very public. The geography of Venice gave the public access to the celebrities in a way events in Los Angeles or London rarely do. Reporters on a boat could chat to Bezos as he sped by in his launch.
Orlando Bloom could be spotted from the water as he ate his breakfast on the terrace of the Gritti Palace hotel overlooking the Grand Canal. The British actor was billeted there alongside the singer Ellie Goulding, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Kardashians, Euphoria's Sydney Sweeney and the comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Further down the canal, the St Regis hosted guests needing a bit more police protection, including Gates, Queen Rania of Jordan and the OpenAI boss Sam Altman.
• Jeff Bezos wedding: guests watch on as vows exchanged
On Saturday, between the parties, outfit changes and cocktails, wedding guests found time to visit to a glass-blowing factory on the island of Murano. 'We were told to expect about a hundred people and I heard Leonardo Di Caprio proposed the visit because he is a fan of glass-blowing,' said Simonetta Regini, wife of the expert glass-worker Fabiano Amadi, whose creations reflect the ancient tradition on the Venetian island.
'Michele Obama, Ed Sheeran and Hilary Clinton have previously visited and the Bezos group is another boost for a craft that risks dying,' Regini said.
The wedding was set to reach its grand finale with Saturday night's party at the Arsenale. The ancient shipyard, which once turned out warships during Venice's heyday, is still partly run by the Italian military and is hidden by crenellated walls. As the 200 guests readied to party in large halls in which vast sails were once stitched, workers were setting up trestle tables and security guards were busy ejecting journalists trying to sneak in.
Forced to move there from another venue where protesters threatened to leap into surrounding canals with inflatable crocodiles, organisers barred boats from the basin at the centre of the Arsenale, which is used for the city's Biennale art and architecture shows.
Saturday's bash followed the main event on Friday, when Bezos, 61, and Sánchez, 55, exchanged vows on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, where awnings thwarted spying drones and paparazzi bobbing in boats had to strain their ears to hear the opera singer Matteo Bocelli belting out Can't Help Falling in Love.
Police were on alert on Saturday afternoon as protesters from around northern Italy who object to Bezos's wealth — and what they see as the 'Disneyfication' of Venice — gathered for a march from the train station to the Rialto bridge. 'We are against people who come here and park their superyachts outside the homes of people, including people who work for Amazon, who struggle to make it to the end of the month,' said Tommaso Cacciari, a leading protester.
But on Via Garibaldi, locals were enthusiastic about the party. 'It's sweet they chose Venice. I'm happy for them,' said Roberta, 54, who was serving at a bakery. 'It's brings in money and the right kind of tourists.'
Giancarlo Colombo, an antique dealer, added: 'We need people like him more than the daytrippers with rucksacks and sandwiches.'