U.S. Ambassador Arrives in Venice on Private Yacht; Protesters Stage Demonstration

Hundreds of protesters clashed with riot police in Venice on July 17 after U.S. Ambassador Tilman Fertitta arrived aboard his 117-meter yacht Boardwalk and moored it in St. Mark’s Basin. ” at the ambassador, the mayor, and the police.

The protest occurred during Fertitta’s “Coastal Diplomacy 250” tour of 13 Italian coastal regions marking the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence. ” Fertitta issued a statement supporting the right to protest, saying, “I like Italians.

We Americans respect freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest. ” Organizer Stella Morion told The Associated Press that the demonstration opposed the display of wealth in a city increasingly oriented toward tourism and linked the action to U.S. strikes on Iran that she said had raised energy prices.

“It is the umpteenth slap in the face of a city and all of the people in Venice who struggle to reach the end of the month due to an increase in prices caused by Trump’s war,” she stated. Fertitta, owner of Fertitta Entertainment with a reported net worth of $11.3 billion, is expected to attend the Redentore festival in Venice, which commemorates the end of the 1576 plague with fireworks over St.

Mark’s Basin.

His tour has already included stops in Sicily and Calabria.