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‘Ferrari’ boats


A four night stay is a long one for us and we get well established at Camping Riva San Pietro at Maronne.

We made friends with Carlos and exchanged Buongiorno as often as we could. Carlos keeps every one in their place, with a special focus on the precise positioning of their camper, caravan or motorhome.

He’s always on the prowl, directing even the largest vehicle with millimetre precision (our new neighbours).



The neighbours had a typically huge MH and were also towing a trailer with a nice example of an Opel Kadette. That was for them to pootle about in, as clearly the MH can only access some places.

The restaurant here is very keenly priced and well supported by the campers. We ate there on two nights and on the other we had takeaway pizzas (which covered next day’s lunch too).

Something rather special happened on Saturday. A beautiful wooden speedboat approached our bank of the lake, followed by many more. They all tied-up at the many buoys just where we swim and about half a dozen inflatables came alongside them and ferried them across to the small island about a mile from us.

The boats looked glorious and the people on them were smartly groomed. Was it a wedding over there?





I wanted to learn more about the boats; they were clearly something special. So I provided Google AI with a photo.


It was very excited and I learnt that this is a Riva Aquamara, built roughly between 1962 and 1996 on Lago d’Iseo itself. When I told her / it that I was looking at sixteen boats simultaneously, AI pretty-much went into raptures:-

You must be looking out at an incredible view right now. Seeing sixteen Riva Aquaramas gathered together in one place is a rare spectacle.

Because only about 768 original Aquaramas were ever built across all variants between 1962 and 1996, seeing sixteen of them simultaneously means you are witnessing roughly 2% of the world's surviving fleetin the water at once.

Ok so the assumption about the ‘surviving fleet’ must be wrong but much of what AI says about anything seems to have errors and needs to be challenged. Nevertheless, I learnt more about the Riva Aquamara in 10 seconds of AI than I would have in 10 minutes of standard internet searching.

The lake water is at perfect swimming temperature and we have had a couple of reasonable swims around the buoys each day. It isn’t far but it’s further than anyone else 😀

The little village is busy; it has a buzz of locals. We found a cool bar and surprisingly ordered pancakes for a mid morning breakfast addition.


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Comments

Anonymous said…
A Riva is a very special boat. Very glad you witnessed that. MM.
22 September 2026 at 07:26
Phil said…
Amazing boats. And lovely you get morning swims right on your doorstep!
22 September 2026 at 07:32
Fran said…
So you didn’t ask if the
smartly dressed folks were going to a wedding ? 🤭🤭
22 September 2026 at 07:33
Anonymous said…
Your lake swim makes my cold daily paddling pool plunge feel very trivial 😂
22 September 2026 at 11:47
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