The Boardwalk of Shame
We were sitting in the cockpit earlier this week, stern to the town quay in Siracusa, Sicily, held off by an anchor from the bow. . It’s such a privilege to be moored in the centre of this city that was once the centre of the world. And amazingly enough, considering it’s July in the Mediterranean, it’s free!
A few hundred yards in front of us, appeared the biggest motor boat I have seen, and after a year in this part of the world we have seen some big ones! Sal remarked…”Look at the helicopter on the bow!” I replied “it’s not on the bow its on the stern!” Turns old we were both right…as there are two helicopter pads on board, one at each end….both occupied! Ironically, it tied up amongst the working fishing fleet, and immediately a security cordon appeared around the dock.
When a boat this large, ugly and ostentatious rocks up, it needs a little investigation. This is what I found out.
It’s owned by ann American called Tilman Fertitta. Fertitta built his wealth through Landry's, Inc., a Texas-based hospitality conglomerate he owns that spans restaurants, hotels and casino. So it’s basically gambling profits.
When Fertitta was confirmed by the Senate in April 2025 to become U.S. Ambassador to Italy and San Marino, the vote drew almost no resistance -just 14 senators voted no. But more than a year into his tenure, the appointment has become a case study in the criticisms often levelled at America's practice of handing diplomatic posts to wealthy campaign donors.
His background is almost entirely in leisure, entertainment and gaming — a résumé that has little overlap with the diplomatic, foreign-policy experience traditionally expected of an ambassador to a G7 nation.
More than a year into his tenure, the appointment has become a case study in the criticisms often leveled at America's practice of handing diplomatic posts to wealthy campaign donors.
Fertitta donated $1 million to Donald Trump's 2024 campaign through various entities, and shortly after the administration took shape, he received one of the most prestigious postings in the foreign service. As one Council on Foreign Relations fellow put it, rewarding wealthy donors with plum ambassadorships is a long-running Washington tradition, but the scale of Fertitta's personal involvement in his own embassy operations has raised ethical questions. It's a dynamic that fuels a broader critique of the U.S. ambassadorial system: posts in wealthy, desirable countries often go not to career diplomats but to whoever wrote the biggest check.
Since taking the post, Fertitta has repeatedly folded his personal empire into his official duties. He reportedly found the ambassador's historic Roman residence, Villa Taverna, uninhabitable and instead took up residence aboard the gin palace in Civitavecchia, commuting to the embassy by helicopter — an arrangement that drew notice in Rome's political circles.
The “uninhabitable” Villa Taverna in Rome.
The clearest symbol of the controversy is Boardwalk, Fertitta's personal superyacht. Built by Germany's Lürssen and delivered in early 2026, the vessel is 384 feet long, displaces roughly 5,350 tons, and can host 14 guests with a crew of 48. It reportedly cost around $450 millionUS and comes equipped with two pools, two helicopter pads, a wine cellar, a garage for smaller "limo" yachts, a cinema, a putting green, massage and fitness rooms, and a beauty salon. (How does a putting green work at sea?)
Rather than keeping this asset separate from his official role, Fertitta has made it the literal centerpiece of embassy programming: a months-long "Freedom 250 Coastal Diplomacy Italy Tour" branded through the U.S. Embassy's own social media channels. Critics argue this collapses the distinction between statecraft and personal indulgence — presenting a private luxury vessel as a public diplomatic tool while Boardwalk remains, at bottom, privately owned.
The optics have not gone unnoticed by Italians. Activists in Venice, still bitter over Jeff Bezos's 2025 wedding spectacle in the city, have organised protests against the yacht's planned visit, with one organiser arguing that flaunting that level of wealth insults residents struggling to afford housing in Venice. Environmental groups have also raised concerns about docking a vessel of that size in a lagoon city that already bans large cruise ships and strains under heavy tourist traffic.
Taken together, the donor-to-ambassador pipeline, the murky financing of embassy activities, and a $450 million yacht branded as a diplomatic mission have made Fertitta's tenure a lightning rod — seen by critics less as a model of American "coastal diplomacy" and more as a vivid illustration of how wealth and political access continue to shape U.S. foreign service appointments.
What frustrates me most is not that Fertitta has a massive, ugly, luxury boat (I refuse to call it a yacht!) but that he is using his influence to corrupt the very systems that are meant to ensure some degree of rationality and fairness. Hopefully there’s only 481 days left of this behaviour.