“Riva Days La Serenissima”

A one of a kind show. It never happened before that 50 wooden Riva runabouts joined together in a great parade on the Grand Canal in Venice. This will happen in the afternoon of Saturday July 4. The fleet with meet along the Rio dei Tolentini, near Fondamenta Santa Chiara. Here the boats will form a
line and proceed slowly through the Grand Canal to Piazza San Marco.
From the docks or the bridges it will cross (Ponte della Costituzione, Ponte degli Scalzi, Ponte di Rialto e Ponte dell’Accademia) people can admire and take pictures of one of the most unswerving myths in the history of leisure craft, flagship brand of Made in Italy all over the world.

Once in the Grand Canal the fleet will stop in the stretch of sea in front of Piazza San Marco. From here, after playing all sirens to thank the city that hosted them, they will return to their base at Marina Sant’Elena. The parade will last some two hours.

Sunday, July 5 the boats will return in front of Piazza San Marco, with the crews sporting costumes pertaining to the world of water, real or imaginary, specially prepared for the Concours d’Elegance Frederique Constant. Back at Marina Sant’Elena they will be judged by a special commission that will decide the winner.

All major models of Riva will parade, from Aquarama to Ariston, from Florida to Tritone, from Junior to Olympic, plus a rare Scoiattolo. The size of each single boat varies from 4 to ca 8 meters for the twin-engines. If you put them all in a row the 50 historic Rivas would reach a length of over 300 meters, so that they could be boarded one behind the other on the flight deck of a US aircraft carrier as the Nimitz.

It was also calculated that the total value of the boats present in Venice in those days will just reach about 10 million Euros, though the real significance is their enormous historic value. Do not forget that Riva wooden boats are not manufactured since 1996. At the end of the Nineties, thanks to the Riva Historical Society, these boats have been rediscovered, restored by leading shipyards (most of them located on the lakes of Lombardy), to then perform and be exhibited at such events as “Riva Days La Serenissima”.

The parade is part of the initiatives promoted inside the International event “Riva Days La Serenissima”, held in Venice from 2 to 7 July 2015. The boats entered, built between 1955 and 1983, will come from nations such as France, Switzerland, Nederland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, U.K., USA and Principality of Monaco, as well as from Italy.