“Take a private boat from the San Marco Pier and – bye, bye paparazzi – enter the island with a Romanesque church from 1131.”
The wedding this weekend of Jeff Bezos, 61, and Lauren Sánchez, 55, (the second marriage for both who have seven children between them) is turning Venice, Italy upside down. Not since 2014 when George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin at City Hall in Venice, has the Italian city had such buzz. Everything is top-secret but expect Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Barry Diller and Venice habitué Diane von Furstenberg, Jewel, Gayle King, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump (President Trump is not attending).
So where is this ultra privé, high-wattage herd staying? Enter San Clemente Palace, a five-star retreat in a former 12th Century monastery on a private Venetian island. Guests take a private boat from the San Marco Pier and – bye, bye paparazzi – enter the island with a Romanesque church from 1131 that boasts Giusto Le Court’s 17th-century Guarding Angels (stolen two decades ago and recovered by the Carabinieri in 2023) standing at the church entrance. Super rich celebrities feel at home on private islands, especially with private dining rooms, manicured gardens, towering cypress trees to sneak behind and a high-tech Longevity Spa.
Not everyone is thrilled with the Bezos x Sánchez nuptials. The mischievous “No Space for Bezos” movement has staged demonstrations and plans to block the canals that lead to the Scuola Grande della Misericordia with inflatable animals. – PETER DAVIS
