Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez wedding leaves Venice divided

The sumptuous of Amazon’s wedding party, Jeff Bezos, and television presenter Lauren Sanchez ends this evening in Venice with the main gala.

But while their celebrity guests were preparing to enter the water taxis of their luxury hotels, Paparazzi posed, a crowd of certain Venetians gathered to protest against the big event.

Their causes are varied, residents opposed to over-tourism in a delicate city, to militants protesting against climate change and capitalism.

Hundreds paraded in the city on Saturday evening, hanging a “No Space for Bezos” banner from the Rialto bridge and triggering multicolored rockets. But plans to get into the city’s channels with inflatable crocodiles and block the passage of wedding guests.

Spotted in front of Harry Bar for lunch on Saturday, Bezos kisses the cameras when a local journalist asked what he had done with demonstrations.

The deputy mayor of the city rejected activists as “narcissists” and insisted that marriage had the needs of “high quality tourism”.

Simone Venturini, municipal councilor for economic developments, said that he hoped that “many people will want to get married in Venice” now and stimulate the city’s wedding sector.

“We are not Iran. The city cannot say who can or who cannot get married. We do not have a moral police that goes around,” he told the BBC on the Bank of the Grand Canal, while the gondolas loaded with tourists have derived.

Activists have already won a victory.

Tonight’s party was moved from the city center for security reasons. The new place, arsenale, is easier to protect.

“I think the main problem is that Venice becomes like an amusement park,” said Paola, Italian member of the extinction rebellion group.

She particularly exasperated that wedding guests have arrived here on private jets and maintains that the world’s elite is the worst polluters.

“Of course, mass tourism eats the living city, but the fact that the billionaires can come here and using the city as a amusement park is a huge problem.”

The Italian media jumped on the glitter and the glamor of what they nicknamed the “marriage of the year”.

Their pages and posts are full of photos of the 200 celebrities on the list now in town, notably Leonardo Di Caprio and Kim Kardashian.

We are talking about cuttlefish banquets – This evening spread will include cod, the cooked regional style – and photos of the bride’s white lace dress and the Gabbana dress, apparently inspired by that carried by Sophia Loren in the 1950s.

However, it seems that the speech on this marriage ending the city was exaggerated.

Ivanka Trump was spotted in an art gallery, just like Bill Gates, and the newly married couple was photographed and filmed in various places and outfits.

But most tourists, or Venetians, are more likely to come up against a Bezos lookalike, who made the trip from Germany specially to pose for photos, than any real rich and famous.

There are a lot of water and gondolas still free for rental and no crowd of angry tourists, deprived of their magic driving.

Some streets have been briefly closed around the main events, but the disturbances seem to have been minimal.

Most posters declaring “no space for Bezos” have been torn off and just a little graffiti can be seen. Attempts to project slogans on the buildings were quickly arrested by the police.

A march planned by demonstrators on Saturday evening takes place with official permission.

But the fears that Venice becomes a tourist playground, forcing the inhabitants of the city, are not an exaggeration.

Just at the bottom of the main station, the police check the visitors at random to leave them in compulsory day. This is a new measure to try to control the crowd.

All around, the cafes are filled with shiny people with humidity and brutally ferocious sun.

A few steps is the pretty Piazza where Roberto Zanon spent his whole life but that he must now leave.

Its owner sold his house to developers outside the city and the 77 -year -old is soon expelled with his two dogs.

It is impossible to find anything in his hometown, says Roberto. He cannot compete with more paid tourists.

“One, two, three doors – they are residents, but the rest is all for tourism now,” says Roberto, pointing wooden doors around its place.

“There are fewer and fewer Venetians here,” he said gently, deeply upset by the loss of his house. “There is no more goal. You lose your friends. You lose a piece of your heart. But unfortunately, this situation is unstoppable.”

This does not mean that Roberto is worried about a billionaire who chooses Venice for his wedding, be careful.

He worked himself in tourism for many years and calls him “an honor” to have such famous guests in the city he loves himself. “I find it positive.”

He is not alone.

In a souvenir shop selling magnets and t-shirts, LEDA is in favor of the Bonanza de Bezos-Sanchez.

She is frank: “I think there should be more people like Bezos here. Right now, we are obtaining garbage tourism and Venice does not deserve this.”

LEDA had its own store selling quality Italian products, but had to close it to adapt to a low expenditure market. “It is a low-cost tourism and with offense of flight,” she says. “People take 20 euros, come here and do not spend anything. This is not what Venice needs.”

So what will remain, when the big party throws outside the city?

The deputy mayor confirmed that the owner of Bezos technology had donated “around three million euros” to groups working to protect this fragile City-On-The Water, in a gesture of support.

As for the 30 million euros, marriage could bring the city in other respects – activists call this a “drop in the lagoon” for one of the richest men in the world.

“It’s about three euros for a normal person, if you put in proportion to the richness of Bezos,” said Lorenzo of the extinction rebellion. “It is a very small sum of money.”