By Sara Rossi and Manuel Silvestri
Venice, Italy, Jun 26 (Reuters) – The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, and the journalist Lauren Sánchez were ready on Thursday to start three days of lavish wedding celebrations in Venice, with strong security measures protecting his VIP guests from the protesters.
Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe Kardashian were some of the last guests to arrive, while the daughter of US President Donald Trump, Ivanka, and her son -in -law, Jared Kushner, who appeared on Tuesday, have taken advantage of the extra time to do tourism and purchases.
It is expected that between 200 and 250 people from the entertainment world, politics and finance participate in what has been called “The Wedding of the Century”, whose cost is estimated between 40 million and 48 million euros (between 46 million and 56 million dollars).
Bezos and Sánchez landed in Venice by helicopter on Wednesday and settled at the luxurious Hotel Aman, where the rooms with a view to the Grand Canal cost at least 4,000 euros per night.
The couple was seen at dinner time leaving the hotel in an aquatic taxi, greeting photographers and the crowd, and Sánchez throwing kisses into the air with a vintage dress by Alexander McQueen.
The guests will meet on Thursday night in the Cloister of the Madonna Dell’orto, a medieval church in the central Cannaregio area that houses masterpieces of the painter of the 16th century Tintoretto.
The City Council has banned the passage of pedestrians and aquatic traffic from 4.30 pm local (1430 GMT) until midnight, blocking the passage to the protesters who have promised to await the party.
Bezos and Sánchez will exchange votes on Friday on the small island of San Giorgio, in front of the main square of San Marcos, in a ceremony that, according to an official of the City Council, will not be legal according to Italian norms.
Some have speculated with the possibility that the couple has already married in the United States, which would free them from the bureaucracy associated with an Italian marriage, such as having to celebrate it in an authorized place and previously notify the local City Council.
The celebrations will conclude on Saturday with the main party in one of the rooms of Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard converted into artistic space in the Eastern neighborhood of Castello.
Round business
The “No Space for Bezos” movement plans demonstrations against an event that considers a sale of Venice to the super -criticism while ignoring the needs of foot citizens, but much less all the premises are hostile.
Politicians, hoteliers and other residents say that high -level events, instead of tourist crowds that spend little, are a better way to support the local economy, and cross out the marginal minority protesters.
“We are not talking about hundreds or thousands of people, but a few tens,” said Daniele Minotto, vice president of the Venice Hotel Association.
Davide Busato, archaeologist of the Probazos Group “Yes Venice Can,” said that multimillionaire tourism gives the city the opportunity to show.
“The idea that a ‘morality office’ decides who can marry Venice is a disturbing concept, unworthy of a free city,” he wrote on Facebook.
Bezos, executive president of the Amazon Electronic Commerce and number 4 on the list of Forbes billionaires, promised Sánchez in 2023, four years after the breakdown of his 25 -year marriage with Mackenzie Scott.
(Alise Armellini report; Spanish edition of Javier López de Lérida)
