Jeff in Venice: a 'triumph of tackiness'?

Locals protest as Bezos uses the city as a 'private amusement park' for his wedding celebrations

Jeff Bezos and spouse Lauren Sanchez Bezos leave the Aman Hotel on the third day of their wedding festivities in Venice.
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez Bezos leaving the Aman Hotel in Venice on the third day of their wedding festivities
(Image credit: Marco Bertorello / Getty Images)

It was billed as the "wedding of the century", said Camilla Tominey in The Daily Telegraph, but in the event, the Bezos-Sánchez nuptials in Venice last week did not exactly ooze "sophistication". The three-day, multimillion-pound shindig was a "triumph of tackiness over taste" – from the foam party on Bezos's $500 million yacht to the flood of Kardashians, Trumps and the like arriving in a fleet of private jets, to the bride's 27 outfits and the millions of dollars spent on flowers.

Many Venetians, it's fair to say, weren't impressed, said Victoria Derbyshire in The i Paper. The Amazon founder was met with angry protests by locals, who felt that he was treating "their beloved city" as a "private amusement park for the very wealthy". Activists of many stripes joined in: in St Mark's Square, Greenpeace unveiled a huge banner reading: "If you can rent Venice for your wedding you can pay more tax."

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