Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding planners have insisted they have no plans to take over the city of Venice in the face of mounting protests from locals.
The Amazon billionaire plans to wed fiancée Sanchez at a lavish three-day ceremony in Venice this week, sparking furious protest from Venetians who have vowed to blockade the city’s canals and ports, and picket the as-of-yet unannounced wedding venue.
“Bezos will never get to the Misericordia,” protest organizer Federica Toninello told a crowd last week, referring to a historic 14th-century armory hotly tipped to be the ceremony location, CNN reported. “We will block the canals, line the streets with our bodies, block the canals with inflatables, dinghies, boats.”
Another protester promised the event will be remembered for the backlash rather than its opulent attendees, adding, “We can’t miss a chance to disrupt a $10-million wedding.”
Among the precautions city officials have taken in the run-up to the event: block-booking the city’s nine yacht ports, reserving a large number of Venice’s iconic water taxis, closing off a variety of iconic venues and event spaces from the public in an effort to keep protesters out, and banning drones in Venetian airspace, CNN reported.
Bezos has also drafted former United States Marines to provide security for the event, further heightening tensions.
But wedding organizer Lanza & Baucina Limited, founded by Prince Antonio Licata di Baucina and Count Riccardo Lanza, has hit back at claims the Bezos wedding party is “taking over” the city, claiming their goal has been to minimize disruption to the city throughout the three-day event.
“From the outset, instructions from our client and our own guiding principles were abundantly clear: the minimising of any disruption to the city, the respect for its residents and institutions, and the overwhelming employment of locals in the crafting of the events,” di Baucina and Lanza company said in a statement, according to Page Six.
The minor royals, who boast of “always knowing someone who can open the secret doors in Italy,“ said they had been working for months to avoid negatively impacting the city.
“We have always acknowledged the wider debate and critical issues surrounding the city’s future, and from the outset our client has been honoured to support the city and its all-important lagoon through non-profit organisations and associated projects,” a company spokesman said.
“Rumors of ‘taking over’ the city are entirely false and diametrically opposed to our goals and to reality,” they added. “No exaggerated quantity of water taxis or gondolas have ever been booked, the number of taxis reserved being proportionate for the number of guests.”
Bezos has also reportedly curried favor with city officials by making substantial donations to a number of local charities and sourcing around 80 percent of the wedding’s provisions from local vendors, CNN reports.
A pro-Bezos campaign group named “Yes, Bezos can” has also sprung up, thanking the billionaire for pumping funds into the local economy.
Around 200 A-list guests are expected to attend, with celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger, and Kim Kardashian all rumored to be on the guest list. A local official also let slip that President Donald Trump is hotly tipped to make an appearance, although his priorities may have changed following the weekend’s geopolitical escalation with Iran.
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