Additional Coverage:
- I watched the ultra-rich descend on Venice for Jeff Bezos’ wedding — and was shocked how little locals cared (businessinsider.com)
Bezos’ Venetian Wedding: A Tale of Two Cities
The buzz surrounding Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s extravagant Venetian wedding was palpable, but it seemed to barely ripple the surface of everyday life for most Venetians. While the world watched the spectacle unfold, a stark contrast emerged between the city of opulence enjoyed by the ultra-wealthy and the Venice experienced by locals and everyday tourists.
Arriving in Venice just before the wedding, the disparity was immediately evident. Kim Kardashian’s private jet sat gleaming on the tarmac, a stark contrast to the budget airline and crowded airport bus I took.
While VIPs like Oprah and Gayle King were whisked away on private water taxis, I waited in the sweltering heat for the vaporetto, Venice’s public water bus. Luxury hotels, accessible only by water, served as fortresses for the wedding guests, their canals acting as moats, shielding them from the outside world.
The wedding itself felt like a distant media circus to most Venetians. Locals I spoke with expressed more concern about the city’s pressing issues – pickpocketing, overtourism, and the damage caused by boats to historic foundations – than the Bezos-Sánchez nuptials.
“It doesn’t affect us,” one Venetian photographer told me, echoing a common sentiment. Another local, sipping a drink near a five-star hotel, agreed, noting that Venice has a long history of hosting the wealthy.
Indeed, the Rialto market bustled with activity, vendors haggling over prices and locals greeting regulars. Tourists crowded museums and queued for the vaporetto, their routines uninterrupted.
However, in Piazza San Marco, a different scene played out. Protests organized by the “No Space for Bezos” group took center stage, with activists scaling flagpoles and displaying banners criticizing Bezos’ wealth and calling for higher taxes on the rich.
Though the protests were a visible sign of dissent, they remained largely contained, unable to penetrate the carefully constructed bubble surrounding the wedding festivities.
While paparazzi camped outside Bezos and Sánchez’s hotel, the rest of Venice carried on. Shopkeepers opened their businesses, tourists enjoyed gelato, and another couple, without bodyguards or fanfare, posed for their own wedding photos.
Two Venices coexisted: one of private jets and speedboats, the other of crowded vaporetti and the everyday hustle and bustle. For a Venetian activist who helped organize the protests, the Bezos-Sánchez wedding highlighted the growing divide between the super-rich and the people who live and work in the city.
He viewed the wedding not just as a celebrity event, but as a symbol of how Venice increasingly caters to the wealthy, often at the expense of its residents. Despite the protests and the visible contrast between the two worlds, life in Venice continued, a testament to the city’s resilience and the enduring spirit of its people.