Starring role for ‘Kardashian jetty’ as Venice visitors seek peeks of Bezos wedding sites

For the residents of Venice who travel daily through the city’s waterways, the small wooden floating jetty outside the Gritti Palace hotel is nothing special, “no different to a London underground stop”, as Igor Scomparin, a tour guide, puts it.But for a certain type of tourist it is a must-see spot. In June last year, Kim Kardashian disembarked from a water taxi here and navigated its planks during the five-day wedding of the billionaire Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos, and Lauren Sánchez, a former TV journalist.The reality TV star was among the scores of celebrities and members of the world’s super-rich who had descended on the city to celebrate the nuptials, which included everything from pyjama parties to elegant dinners, and provoked widespread protests by anti-Bezos campaigners who threatened to disrupt the festivities by letting loose a convoy of inflatable crocodiles into the city’s canals.Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos leaving the Aman Venice hotel on 29 June 2025. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/ReutersThe event, which the Italian press called “the wedding of the century”, brought in about €957.3m to the local economy, according to estimates from Italy’s tourism ministry, the bulk of which is believed to have been derived from the huge hubbub created by the world’s media as it captured all the friction and frivolity.More than six months on, the fascination with the Bezos shindig shows no signs of waning as rising numbers of visitors seek peeks of the various places frequented by the bride, groom and their glitterati guests.Gone are the days when the top requests for Scomparin – a guide esteemed for his insight and intimate knowledge of Venice’s history, culture and traditions – involved visits to St Mark’s Square, the Doge’s Palace or the Rialto Bridge.Now his customers want to be taken off the beaten track, away from the crowds and, increasingly so since June, “they want to see where the Bezoses got married and where the celebrities ended up”, he said. “They saw all the media attention and now they are curious to see what these places are really like.”Tour guide Igor Scomparin with visitors in Venice. Photograph: Marta Clinco/The GuardianA recent Bezos wedding tour began with a stroll along a street filled with designer boutiques where Ivanka Trump shopped, before the group stopped opposite the seven-star Aman hotel, famous for its frescoes by the Venetian master Giambattista Tiepolo, where the bride and groom stayed.“This whole area was full of paparazzi,” Scomparin said as he pointed towards the hotel. “People mostly want to know how much it costs. When I tell them prices start from about €3,500 a night for a basic room, they are not so much shocked, just interested to know about that kind of lifestyle.”Scomparin’s clients, mostly from the US, want to see San Giorgio island, where the couple exchanged vows, and the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, the majestic 16th-century building in the city centre where they had hoped to wed before the plan was scuppered by the threatened crocodile stunt. Then there is the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the city where the afterparty was held.Alongside the key wedding locations there is high demand for rides on the wooden taxi boats that transported celebrities, among them Oprah Winfrey, Orlando Bloom and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as for visits to the piazzas where celebrities were spotted or where they took selfies, not to mention the now famous “Kardashian jetty”.Boats carrying Bezos and guests travel past St Mark’s Square. Photograph: Luigi Costantini/AP“Teenagers especially tell me they saw the photos on Instagram of her arriving and want to go to that spot,” Scomparin said. “But when they see it they are a little disappointed because it’s not as chic as it looked. It’s just a regular, everyday jetty that locals use to get on and off boats.”People have been snapping up the two main gifts received by the wedding guests: Friuliane, the velvet shoes typically worn by gondoliers, and goti de fornasa drinking glasses, traditionally made on the island of Murano.An often impromptu bonus to Scomparin’s tours is if his customers get to see packages emblazoned with the Amazon brand whizzing along Venice’s canals as they are being delivered to their recipients.George and Amal Clooney got married in Venice in 2014, and three years before that elephants were brought to the city for a lavish Bollywood wedding. But neither attracted as much intrigue – or indignation – as the Bezos one. The protests were organised by various groups, from those fighting overtourism who accused local authorities of being hellbent on turning Venice into a playground for the rich, to climate activists and people appalled by Bezos’s support for Donald Trump.George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin on the way to their civil wedding in Venice in 2014. Photograph: Robino Salvatore/GC ImagesThe protests were noisy but marginal to the occasion, which took place without any issues, according to Michael Zennaro, a wedding photographer. “It was an opportunity to show off Venice across the world and to show that weddings can take place here – away from the crowds, in more private settings,” he said.Marigiulia Sella, a wedding planner, said there had been an increase in enquiries for high-end weddings. “Very often they want experiences that span multiple days. One of the beautiful things about Venice is that you are in a unique city with high-end historic venues that offer so much, as well as a lot of privacy.”Scomparin points out a building across a waterway. Photograph: Marta Clinco/The GuardianDuring his Bezos tours, Scomparin provides plenty of interesting snippets about other aspects of Venice, including an abandoned building that nobody wants to buy because it is believed to be cursed.But one thing he does not know is what became of the designer dress – one of 27 that Sánchez packed for the event – that was later reported missing. “That one is still a mystery,” he said.