Rowing Clubs in Italy: Turin, Rome, Venice and the Lakes

This page is for anyone in Italy, or planning a move there, who wants to find a boat club. Italian rowing grew up in Turin, where five societies set up the national federation in 1888, and it still revolves around a network of historic canottieri on rivers, lakes and the Venetian lagoon. These are often more than rowing clubs. Cremona’s Baldesio, for example, also offers tennis, swimming, canoeing, football and bocce on the banks of the Po.

Clubs to start with

Club	Founded	Location/water	Who it’s for	Website
Reale Società Canottieri Cerea	1863	Turin, Viale Virgilio on the Po	learn-to-row, masters, competitive	canottiericerea.it
Società Canottieri Armida	n/a	Turin	n/a	canottieriarmida.it
Società Canottieri Milano	1890	Milan, Naviglio Grande	juniors, competitive	canottierimilano.it
Società Canottieri Firenze	1911	Florence, Arno	juniors	n/a
Canottieri Lario	n/a	Como, Lake Como	juniors, masters, competitive	canottierilario.it
Canottieri Gavirate	1960	Gavirate, Lake Varese	recreational, competitive	canottierigavirate.it
Reale Società Canottieri Querini	1901	Venice, lagoon	juniors, masters, competitive	canottieriquerini.it
Circolo Canottieri Roma	1919	Rome, Tiber	juniors	canottieriroma.it
Circolo Canottieri Aniene	1892	Rome, Tiber	n/a	ccaniene.com
Canottieri Leonida Bissolati	n/a	Cremona	juniors, competitive	bissolati.it
Società Canottieri Baldesio	n/a	Cremona, Po	recreational, competitive	baldesio.it

Lario marks a 130th anniversary on its site, and Baldesio describes more than a hundred years of sporting tradition, but neither states an exact year on the pages we read. For more countries, see all club guides, including rowing clubs in Austria and rowing clubs in France.

How Italian rowing is organised

The Federazione Italiana Canottaggio (FIC) began on 31 March 1888 in Turin as the Rowing Club Italiano, with five founding societies: Cerea, Eridano, Armida, Caprera and Esperia. It has been based in Rome since 1957. Its national technical centre has been on Lake Piediluco, near Terni, since 1972. The federation’s site is canottaggio.org, which we could not open for this page, so ask a local club about affiliated options if you live outside the cities here. For a comparison with another old rowing nation, see how rowing is organised in Russia.

Most clubs are amateur sports associations. Bissolati, for example, is an Associazione Sportiva Dilettantistica. Lario is a CONI-accredited Centro di Avviamento allo Sport, a youth sports centre. This matters in practice, because many of these clubs are built around members, or soci, who pay for the whole club and not only for a boat.

Season and regattas

The first Campionato d’Italia was rowed at Stresa on Lake Maggiore on 15 September 1889, and the FIC still organises the Italian championships. As a general rule, the racing season runs from spring to autumn. Lake and sheltered clubs can row for much of the year, and winter moves training indoors when rivers run high. Other fixtures worth knowing are:

• Vogalonga, Venice. A non-competitive row of about 30km around the lagoon and Grand Canal. The 50th edition was on 24 May 2026, with entries closing on 7 May.
• Orta Lake Challenge. A 2026 event on Lake Orta that Cerea promotes.
• Po descent. Baldesio has hosted seven editions of a traditional row down the river from Piacenza to Cremona.

Italy’s elite culture still runs through these clubs. Bissolati’s rowers raced at the 2026 Under 19 World Championships in Plovdiv, and Cerea’s news covers both under-19 and university world championships.

Joining as a newcomer

Start by finding out whether you need to become a socio. Cerea’s site has a Diventa Socio section and says enrolment in its rowing courses is always open. Bissolati takes an online membership form, after which the secretariat contacts you. Baldesio restricts some courses to members, and Aniene reserves its main club rooms for members, although its Aquaniene centre is open to the public.

Course timing varies. Lario runs courses every year from late September to the end of May, plus summer courses. Circolo Canottieri Roma runs annual rowing courses and a summer stage for young people. Cerea has an Estate Ragazzi summer programme for 2026. Querini runs a Venetian rowing school for children aged 8 to 15.

Fees differ widely between a small lake club and a historic city circolo, so ask for a full breakdown, including any social membership on top of the rowing fee. As a general rule in Italian sport, expect to need a medical certificate.

Club websites are almost all in Italian. Write in Italian if you can, and ask by email or phone whether a coach can work with you in English. Querini gives an email and phone number directly, and Cerea lists a secretariat.

How to pick a club in Italy

• Olympic rowing or voga veneta. In Venice, Querini offers both canottaggio and voga veneta, where you row standing up. Decide which you want first, because they are different skills.
• Check the size of the commitment. A big circolo such as Aniene gives you a whole sports club. A rowing-focused club such as Gavirate, which says it suits both racers and amateurs, may suit you better if you only want time on the water.
• Look at the water. Lake Como and Lake Varese are lake rowing. Rome and Cremona are river rowing, and the Po at Cremona is a big river. Venice means lagoon conditions and boat traffic.
• Masters and para options. Lario lists master and para-rowing squads, and Querini has about 150 members across juniors, seniors, women and masters.
• Cremona has two choices. Bissolati and Baldesio are in the same city, so compare both before you join.

New to the sport? Read rowing for beginners, then see 10 reasons to join a rowing club.

Spotted a mistake or a club we should add? Let us know.