The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stands accused by the dwindling number of Venetians of using their city as a theme park that can be flogged to the highest bidder. The Globe's Eric Reguly writes that Mr. Bezos picked Venice for his wedding to former journalist Lauren Sanchez. The wedding has become a symbol of the type of tourism that has turned Venice and many of Europe's cities and towns mobbed with selfy-obsessed visitors and robbed of local character. The short-term-rental saturation is called urban "desertification." Useful shops like butchers and hardware stores are replaced by bars, fast-food restaurants and souvenir shops. Now, Venice has banned large cruise ships and, in 2023, became the world's first city to introduce an entrance fee for day-trippers. Barcelona is ground zero for Europe's anti-tourist campaign. It will eliminate all its 10,000 short-term rental licences by 2028 and the national government has ordered the removal of more than 60,000 illegal holiday homes from short-term rental sites. Venetians are hanging anti-Bezos posters on bell towers and threatening to block the canals when his wedding entourage arrives. Enjoy your selfies, Jeff.