Venice braces for Jeff Bezos wedding

The celebration of the tech billionaire and Lauren Sánchez has divided a city that centuries ago set the standard for opulence, writes Emma Bubola from London

- Emma Bubola

Private jets soared above Venice's archipelago, and towering superyachts slipped through its lagoon. Caterers baked buttery Venetian delicacies while protesters schemed. Bomb-sniffing dogs prowled the verdant island of San Giorgio Maggiore, in front of the Doge's Palace.

Venice, the city built by merchants and tradesmen, girded itself this week for the nuptials of the doge of commerce of the digital age.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire tech entrepreneur, newspaper owner turned jacked tabloid fixture and A-list mingler, was set to celebrate his wedding to the energetic broadcaster Lauren Sánchez in a city that centuries ago set the standard for sumptuous, flashy ostentation.

From yesterday and for three days, the frescoed ancient homes of bankers and tradesmen that made Venice rich, now emptied of their residents and brimming with scented orchids, were ready to be turned over to influencers, rappers, pop stars and Ivanka Trump — all among the expected guests.

San Giorgio, where emperors once met with popes, would host the patron of Amazon.com.

City officials and business owners were proud, happy about the money and the prestige the event brings, and they welcomed the wedding, which was expected to stretch across several of the city's islands, as a confirmation of Venice's status as a world wonder.

But for many of the people who have made the uncommon choice to stay in an impractical city rendered almost unlivable by tourism in the easyJet age, the event was a climax of the city's betrayal, an American-size display of its contradictions. It was the capitulation of Venice's identity, they said, reduced to a glittery backdrop for the family photos of the world's new oligarchy.

Venice's left-leaning grass-roots groups, small but popular among its dwindling but determined residents, threatened to obstruct the wedding.