The Riva, the most elegant boat in the world
A mahogany hull varnished like a piano, leather seats, a boatyard on the shore of an Italian lake and a clientele of stars: how a motorboat became a symbol of La Dolce Vita.
Some objects sum up an era. For the Italy of the 1960s, the Italy of La Dolce Vita, of stars on the Riviera and summers in Portofino, that object is a boat: a varnished mahogany motor launch, low-slung and gleaming with chrome, built by a family boatyard on the shore of a small Lombard lake.
A boatyard on Lake Iseo
The story begins in the nineteenth century in Sarnico, on the shores of Lake Iseo, between Bergamo and Brescia, where the Riva family built and repaired boats. Over the generations, the yard specialised in racing and pleasure launches. It was Carlo Riva, from the 1950s onwards, who made it a global brand, bringing a craftsman’s rigour and a designer’s vision to boatbuilding.
The Aquarama
In 1962, the yard unveiled the model that would become its legend: the Aquarama. Its name was inspired by the panoramic cinema screens of the time, a reference to its curved windscreen. A mahogany hull, a deck varnished in many coats, leather seats, a sun pad at the stern, twin engines: it was at once fast, comfortable and of a beauty that owed nothing to chance. Production lasted more than thirty years.
The owners
The list of Riva owners reads like film credits. Film stars, industrialists, crowned heads. Brigitte Bardot, Sophia Loren, Richard Burton, princely families, captains of Italian industry: owning a Riva meant belonging to a world. The boat appeared in films, advertisements and magazine photographs, and became the very image of elegant Mediterranean holidays.
A wooden Riva requires constant care: the hull’s varnish is regularly sanded and reapplied by hand in many coats. Passionate owners speak of their boat as of a musical instrument. Some launches from the 1960s, carefully restored, are still sailing today.
Today
The yard still exists and now builds modern yachts in composite materials. But the wooden models, now collector’s items, change hands at specialist sales and nautical concours d’élégance. On Lake Como, in Portofino or in Saint-Tropez, you can still book trips aboard restored vintage launches, with a skipper.
Why it fascinates
Because it brings together everything that makes true luxury: craftsmanship, noble materials, a beauty that does not try to impress, and a genuine purpose. A Riva is not a boat you show off. It is a boat you look after, pass on, and aboard which you learn to take your time.
Some boats carry passengers. The Riva carries an era.
