Mass tourism, impossibly high rents, worker exploitation, inequality and elitism: Venice protests in recent days against Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's high-profile wedding have highlighted growing global grievances.
Bezos, 61, the fourth richest person in the world, and 55-year-old journalist Sanchez left their luxury hotel on the Grand Canal on Saturday for a final night of partying, crowning a three-day star-studded wedding extravaganza.
The couple exchanged rings on Friday evening on the small island of San Giorgio, across the water from Saint Mark's Square, accompanied by singing from Matteo Bocelli, son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, Jordan's Queen Rania, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe Kardashian, as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were among the A-listers present.
Saturday's evening bash - wrapping up celebrations for 200 to 250 guests estimated to have cost some $US50 million ($NZ82 million) - was to take place in the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the lagoon city in Italy.
Around 1000 people marched against the event on Saturday, groups of activists and residents who object to the wedding and to seeing Venice being gift-wrapped for the uber-wealthy.
But local politicians dismissed protesters as a fringe minority. Bezos's fame and Venice's stunning visual backdrop have offered them international visibility which they effectively exploited.
"No Space for Bezos" banners draped over the iconic Rialto Bridge and a huge canvas laid out on St Mark's Square urging the tech billionaire to pay more taxes have been seen all over the world.
Concerns of greater disruptions forced Bezos and his bride to move their final and biggest celebrity party from the central district to a more isolated venue in the eastern part of the lagoon city.
"The idea that the city should be seen as a set, a stage, or an amusement park has been highlighted like never before by Bezos' wedding," Tommaso Cacciari, a frontman for the No Space for Bezos movement, told Reuters.
PROTESTS
Alice Bazzoli, a 24-year-old university student, called Bezos a "hypocrite" for donating €3 million ($NZ5.8 million) to Venice while flooding its fragile ecosystem with high-polluting private jets and yachts.
Bezos and Sanchez have given €1 million each to three Venetian institutions: CORILA, an academic consortium that studies the lagoon, UNESCO's local office, and Venice International University.
"I'd love Venice to be tailored for citizens, not for tourists, with affordable housing," Bazzoli told Reuters, complaining that students were being priced out of the market, with the best accommodations offered to visitors.
Andrea Segre, a 49-year-old Italian film director born in Venice, said the city was also pushing out ordinary residents. "People aged 25 to 35 - the age group that starts families - cannot afford to live in Venice. The consequence is a lack of diversity and social liveliness."
The city has hosted scores of other VIP weddings, including that of actor George Clooney and human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014, but the latest luxury nuptials have attracted far greater resentment because of Bezos' corporate and political role.
Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has developed ties with United States President Donald Trump.
"Bezos is the embodiment of the most absolute wealth gained through the exploitation of everything around you," 28-year-old student Giulia Cacopardo told Reuters in the run-up to Saturday's march.
In Italy, the e-commerce giant has faced criticism and strikes from trade unions over labour practices, and scrutiny over tax compliance. Reuters reported in February that Italian prosecutors were investigating alleged tax evasion worth $US1.2 billion.
"I would have protested against Bezos even if he had come on a rowboat with just a handful of people ... because he contributed practically, materially and politically to Donald Trump's re-election," protest leader Cacciari said.
LAVISH WEDDING
At the ceremony the bride wore a high-necked silhouette dress and a tulle and lace veil by Dolce & Gabbana, which she told magazine Vogue was based on Sophia Loren's dress to marry Cary Grant in the 1958 film, Houseboat.
Sanchez was also wearing a pair of diamond earrings by Dolce & Gabbana, which, according to Vogue, was lent to her in keeping with the tradition that it brings good luck for a bride to wear something borrowed.
Bezos, who is No 4 on Forbes' global billionaires list, donned a black tuxedo and bow tie over a white shirt.
Friday's ceremony had no legal status under Italian law, a senior city hall official told Reuters, suggesting the couple may have previously wed legally in the United States to avoid the bureaucracy associated with an Italian marriage.
While some residents and activists raged against Bezos as a symbol of inequality and arrogance, Venetian businesses and political leaders welcomed the luxury nuptials, hailing them as major boost for the local economy.
"Those who protest are in contradiction with the history of Venice, which is a history of relations, contacts and business," Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told Reuters.
"Bezos embodies the Venetian mentality. He is more Venetian than the protesters," the centre-right mayor said.
Bezos got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.
