Later this month, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are set to wed in Venice — and local opinion on the over-the-top nuptials is divided.
What’s not up for debate is that Italy continues to be a coveted location for destination weddings, and not just for tech billionaires and Hollywood heavy-hitters. Couples from the United States dominate the market, according to the most recent data from Italy for Weddings, the destination wedding division of the Convention Bureau Italia.
But the travel-to-say-I-do-trend cuts both ways: Many Italians past and present have chosen to exchange vows stateside. According to The Knot, the most popular spots to wed in the U.S. include the Hawaiian Islands and Napa Valley, California. Las Vegas, known as the “wedding capital of the world,” is a great choice for those looking for a quick and quirky way to be joined in holy matrimony — Elvis impersonator optional.
Below are a few notable Italians who traveled westward for their star-spangled nuptials.
Enrico Caruso
Naples-born opera singer Enrico Caruso married the young American socialite Dorothy Park Benjamin in New York City in August of 1918. According to the original wedding announcement in The New York Times, the couple married quietly in a ceremony at Manhattan’s Marble Collegiate Church at 29th Street and Fifth Avenue. In attendance were only a few friends of the bride and the tenor’s personal secretary, Bruno Zirato. Ms. Benjamin’s parents weren’t present, reportedly due to health reasons, but it's widely believed that Dorothy’s father — a wealthy patent lawyer and author — disapproved of the marriage. A typewritten press statement released at the time by Zirato read, “The bride was attired in a dark blue satin afternoon gown, with hat to match. The bridegroom wore a dark gray sack suit.”
The Carusos’ daughter Gloria was born in 1919. Sadly, Enrico Caruso died of pleurisy barely two years later, at the age of 48.
Rudolph Valentino
Silent screen legend Rudolph Valentino — born Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguella in Castellaneta, Puglia — married actress Jean Acker in Los Angeles, California in 1919 and went on to have what’s said to be the shortest Hollywood marriage in history (lasting just 20 minutes, according to Guinness World Records). As the story goes, right after exchanging vows the bride had second thoughts and locked the Italian heartthrob out of the honeymoon suite. In divorce proceedings, Mrs. Valentino claimed that the marriage to the original “Latin Lover” was never consummated and therefore invalid, paving the way for a dissolution of their ill-fated union in 1921.
Frank Capra
Born Francesco Rosario Capra on May 18, 1897 in Sicily, fabled movie director Frank Capra, renowned for such films as It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, married his second wife Lucille Warner in 1932 in New York. The intimate ceremony was followed by a honeymoon spent in the Adirondack Mountains on the occasion of the Lake Placid 1932 Winter Olympics. Frank and “Lu” enjoyed 52 years of marital bliss until the latter’s death in 1984 at the age of 81.
Prince Tao Ruspoli
An Italian filmmaker and musician from an aristocratic family, Don Tao dei Principi Ruspoli married the American actress and Don’t Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde in 2003 (who was 19 at the time). The wedding, uncharacteristically low-key considering the groom’s noble heritage, happened on an old-school bus with a small group of friends as witnesses. After the bohemian-style elopement, Olivia’s parents hosted a more traditional ceremony in their Virginia farmhouse. A third ceremony took place at the groom’s family castle outside of Rome. Three ceremonies didn’t quite seal the deal, however, and after eight years of marriage, Ruspoli and Wilde parted ways.
