Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his bride journalist, Lauren Sánchez, arrived in Venice on Wednesday, before three days of luxurious vip parties in the romantic city to celebrate their marriage, despite the protests of local residents.
About 90 private jets are expected to land at local airports this week, bringing show-business, politics, and finance personalities to the widely called “century marriage”, which will cost bezos an estimated 40 to 48 million euros.
The couple was seen by a Reuters reporter entering the exclusive Aman Venice Hotel, in the Grande Canal, where many of the celebrities will be staying.
The festivities will start on Thursday night with an outdoor meeting at Madonna Dell’Orto cloisters, a medieval church in central Cannaregio area, known for his busy nightlife, a source told Reuters.
The City of Venice issued a guideline on Wednesday isolating the area, isolating the guests of activists who have been protesting for weeks that celebrations will transform the city of Gondolas and Palazzi into a private amusement park for the rich.
“There is only one thing that rules now: money, money, money, so we are the losers,” said Nadia Rigo, a living resident of Venice.
“We, who are born here, have to move to the continent or ask for permission to embark on a ferry. They have become the owners.”
Amid criticism, the governor of the Veneto region, who comprises Venice, said that Bezos and Sánchez donated 3 million euros to three local institutions: Corila, an academic consortium that studies the Lagoa ecosystem, the local UNESCO office and the International University of Venice.
Jeff Bezos in Venice, Italy –
“Welcome to Venice, Jeff,” Luca Zaia said in his statement, thanking the couple for their “extraordinary gesture.”
The date and place of the marriage itself are still unknown, and some speculate that 61 -year -old bezos and 55 -year -old Sánchez may have already married a private ceremony in the United States.
Most of the approximately 250 guests are expected to arrive in time for the second party, which, according to the source, is scheduled for Friday on the small island of San Giorgio, in front of São Marcos’s famous square, with its 99-meter-high belfry.
San Giorgio Island houses the Cini Foundation, which organizes international cultural and politicians in an old monastery dating from the year 1000, with a maze in the garden.
Curious looks
Outside the Aman Venice Hotel, workers raised a striped canvas awning with side walls on a floating pier to protect guests from curious eyes and long photographers.
The celebrations will be closed on Saturday, with the main wedding party to be held at one of the Arsenale salons, a vast former medieval shipyard transformed into an art space in the Castello district.
Surrounded by water and impossible to be reached by land when connection bridges are erected, the hall is considered a safer place than the previous choice for the final party, an old medieval religious school in Cannaregio.
Bezos, executive president of the Amazon e-commerce giant and no. 4 In the list of forbes billionaires, he was engaged to Sánchez in 2023, four years after the end of his 25 -year marriage to Mackenzie Scott.
The couple’s decision to marry in Venice follows other celebrity marriages in the floating city, such as American actor George Clooney and Human Rights Lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014.
Source: Folha
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