Rome (CNN) — Around 300 protesters clashed with riot police in Venice on Friday evening over the arrival of US ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta’s $450 million mega yacht Boardwalk during the city’s annual Redentore (Redeemer) festival, police said.
Fertitta, a close ally of and donor to US President Donald Trump, has been cruising around Italy this summer with his family and some staff on his private yacht as part of what he calls a “coastal diplomacy” effort to celebrate the United States’ 250th anniversary, according to his social media.
His arrival was greeted in Venice by protesters holding signs saying “Venice is not for sale” and insulting Trump. Police were seen pushing back protesters who were trying to reach the ambassador’s ship. Many held signs with photos of Trump, some threw inflatable pool toys at police, others used megaphones to yell insults at the American administration.
Daniele Giordano, secretary of the CGIL union in Venice, told those who had gathered that it was “a disgrace” that Venice was welcoming Fertitta’s mega yacht during the festival, and that its presence “represents the exact opposite of our idea of environmental and social sustainability.”
One demonstrator, Emanuele Lepore, told Reuters news agency: “It is almost strange that we have to struggle so much to make people understand that this city is not for sale, as any other city where people are actually struggling just to live, a city which is constantly emptied out of spaces, houses, public services, and welfare, and it is constantly sold out to billionaires.”
The ambassador, whose net value is listed by Forbes at just under $11 billion, owns casinos, sports teams and restaurants in the United States. Fertitta says he is paying the yacht expenses personally for his family and his guests onboard, but neither the US embassy nor Italian officials have revealed what has been spent by Italian taxpayers to ensure the security needed to protect him and his entourage.
At each of the 13 ports on his itinerary through Labor Day, his plans include meeting with local business leaders, celebrities and Americans on board the yacht, which has required extra security on both land and sea.
His arrival in Venice ahead of one of the city’s most celebrated festivals drew out the same organized groups of demonstrators, who called followers to action on social media, as protested last summer against the celebrity wedding of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and former journalist Lauren Sanchez, which was held over several days in the lagoon city.
The fact that Fertitta’s towering 117-meter (384-foot) yacht docked in front of an area where Venetians would normally be able to watch the impressive festival fireworks from shore added insult to injury. The festival is held annually to celebrate the end of an outbreak of the plague in 1576 and is attended by thousands of people in boats and on the city’s canals, culminating in a fireworks show over the city.
The US embassy has not publicly commented on the protests, but a spokesperson for Italy’s Foreign Ministry said that the coastal diplomacy was working. It comes at a time of tense relations between the US president and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Trump last month doubled down on the feud when he described Meloni as insisting on having a photo taken with him at the G7 in France.
The yacht, which has twin helipads, has until recent weeks been docked in the Civitavecchia port near Rome since Fertitta’s ambassadorship began in 2023. The ambassador and his family lived on the yacht last summer while renovations were made at the official residence in Rome.
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