Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancé, Lauren Sánchez, are reportedly moving one of their wedding venues to a former Italian shipyard — completely surrounded by water — due to security concerns following a rise in protests in Venice, Italy, against the couple’s forthcoming wedding events.
Some 200 to 250 high-profile guests are expected to arrive in Venice after Bezos and Sánchez’s wedding ceremony, to which residents and pressure groups have reacted by accusing the U.S. billionaires of turning their “scenic city of gondolas and palazzi into a private amusement park for the rich,” Reuters reported.
In addition to protesters’ claims that Venice will be disrupted by the A-list wedding, some of the disruptors have reportedly cited their opposition to Bezos over his newfound support for President Donald Trump.
Bezos and Sánchez initially planned to hold a wedding party at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia in Venice, but are now moving the event to Arsensale, an area of the city that is completely surrounded by water and impossible to reach by land while connecting bridges are raised, according to multiple reports.
Now that the venue location is being changed, protesters are claiming an “enormous victory” and crediting themselves for forcing the couple and their wedding guests “run away” from the city center, BBC News reported.
“The news that Bezos has run away from the Misericordia is a great victory for us,” Tommaso Cacciari, a leader of the protest group “No Space for Bezos,” told Reuters.
“We are very proud of this! We are nobodies, we have no money, nothing!” Cacciari exclaimed to BBC News. “We’re just citizens who started organizing and we managed to move one of the most powerful people in the world.”
The group, however, plans to continue their protests throughout the city Saturday, promising to make the wedding a “nightmare” for all who attend.
But not everyone in Italy is happy with the protesters causing a ruckus for the city’s foreign visitors.
Luca Zaia, President of Veneto — the region that houses Venice — condemned the protests, reminding the public that Bezos and Sánchez’s wedding festivities will rake in more than $55 million in revenue for local businesses in Venice, a city that has relied on tourism as a key part of its economy for centuries.
“Knowing that world-renowned personalities choose not only to celebrate important moments in their lives in Venice, but also to make a concrete contribution to its protection, is a strong sign of love and responsibility,” Zaia said in a X post Monday.
“The Veneto region gratefully welcomes this gesture,” the Veneto president added.
Venice city councilor Simone Venturini, meanwhile, called the protests “ridiculous,” adding that the groups are “a tiny minority” and not representative of the city.
“These protesters behave as if they own Venice, but they don’t,” Venturini told BBC News. “No one gets to decide who gets married here.”
“This event involves just 200 carefully selected guests and will bring major economic benefits to the city,” Venturini added.
Bezos and Sánchez’s three-day wedding celebration is set to kick off in Venice later this week. While the exact dates are still a secret, the public and local reports surmise the festivities will go from Thursday to Saturday.
Multiple reports also noted that First Daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, arrived in Italy on Tuesday, likely in preparation for attending the couple’s wedding.
Meanwhile, Belgian fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg is also expected to attend, as she was seen arriving in Italy on Tuesday as well.
Bezos and Sánchez’s star-studded guest list is also rumored to include Leonardo DiCaprio, Mick Jagger, and Kim Kardashian.
London-based event planning company Lanza & Baucina, the couple’s wedding planner, told Fox News that “rumors of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality,” adding that Bezos and Sánchez specifically instructed them to minimize “any disruption” their wedding may cause.
“As event organizers who have been working in Venice for over 24 years, we feel obliged to set the record straight,” Lanza & Baucina said. “No exaggerated quantity of water taxis or gondolas have ever been booked.”
“Before the recent news of protests arose, we had worked for there to be minimal negative impact or disruption to the lives of Venetians and the city’s visitors,” the company added.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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