VENICE, Italy — A planned coastal diplomacy tour celebrating the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence has sparked fierce public pushback in Venice, where billionaire U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tilman Fertitta docked his 117-meter superyacht on Friday to confront widespread demonstrations against his visit.
Fertitta, a hospitality industry tycoon who was sworn into the ambassador post in 2025, launched the so-called Coastal Diplomacy 250 tour, which will cover 13 Italian coastal regions over its route. The excursion, which travels aboard Fertitta’s private luxury yacht *Boardwalk* — a vessel outfitted with two helicopter landing pads, dual swimming pools, a full-service spa, and a professional gym — aims to highlight the long-standing historical, economic, and cultural ties between the United States and Italy, the ambassador wrote in a social media statement ahead of the trip.
But for many local Venetians and activist groups, the visit of a billionaire ambassador on a private superyacht comes off as a tone-deaf display of excessive American wealth and overreach at a moment of deep unease with the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Many Italian critics argue the current U.S. administration has destabilized the post-World War II international order that has guaranteed European stability for decades.
The activist groups organizing the protests against Fertitta’s stop are the same organizations that led demonstrations against last year’s high-profile wedding of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez in Venice, a event that amplified local anger over overtourism and the commercialization of the historic city. On July 4, U.S. Independence Day, protest organizers unfurled a massive banner matching the exact length of Fertitta’s *Boardwalk* that read “Venezia non si USA” — a deliberate wordplay that translates to “Venice is not for the taking” while directly referencing the United States. Protesters say the size of the banner was meant to symbolize what they call the “dimensions of [Fertitta’s] arrogance.”
Stella Morion, one of the protest organizers, told reporters that the visit is an insult to a city already buckling under the weight of unregulated mass tourism. “It’s arrogant to think he can do what he wants in a city that is ever more sold to the single culture of tourism,” Morion said. She added that protesters also extend their opposition to the Trump administration’s global agenda, specifically pointing to U.S. military strikes on Iran that organizers argue have driven sharp spikes in global energy prices, worsening Italy’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“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,” Morion said.
Fertitta has not responded to requests for comment on the protests or the tour. The ambassador, who built his multi-billion dollar fortune in the hospitality sector through a portfolio of restaurants, hotels, and casinos, also owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets. His official biography lists his personal net worth at $11.3 billion, placing him among the 100 wealthiest people in the United States per *Forbes* rankings.
Before arriving in Venice, Fertitta completed stops in multiple southern and central Italian coastal locations. The tour began in the Sicilian port of Cefalu, where his family traces its ancestral roots back to 1566, and included a meeting with Sicily’s regional governor in Palermo. He also stopped at the Calabrian port of Le Castella, sailed along the Puglia coastline, and traveled up the Adriatic Sea to reach Venice.
Details of Fertitta’s scheduled meetings during his Venice stop have not been released to the public, but local officials confirm he is expected to attend the city’s iconic Redentore festival on Saturday. The annual event commemorates the end of a devastating 1576 plague outbreak, and concludes with a famous fireworks display over St. Mark’s Basin.
The controversial visit comes amid a documented cooling of relations between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has launched a series of public social media attacks against Meloni. Once viewed as a key European political ally for Trump with aligned policy positions on issues including immigration, Meloni notably declined to attend the official 250th anniversary of U.S. independence celebrations hosted at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, signaling the ongoing rift between the two leaders.