U.S.S. "Dario Gonzatti"
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The "Unione Sportivi Subacquei Dario Gonzatti" is exclusively recognised as the first Italian diving association. Luigi Ferraro was one of its founding fathers and its President for many years. On May 15th 1948, Ferraro was on his way to work when he met two or three friends who were busy discussing, once again, the disputed question of establishing a diving association. A meeting was arranged that same evening at the Cressi offices. It was attended by Luigi Stuart Tovini, who was born in Florence but was a naturalised citizen of Genoa and who, the following year, won the Italian pre-championship of underwater fishing. Also attending were Gianni Fioroni, a famous optician who, in subsequent years, built the most beautiful private aquarium in the world in his lovely house standing sheer above the sea and Aldo Gasco, a dentist who discovered a wonderful coastal area in Sardinia, where he bought some land and built an unpretentious house. Many years later, that coast became the popular Costa Smeralda and Gasco had to refuse a blank cheque from Aga Khan, who needed that last portion of land to own the whole area, land that Gasco defined as the most beautiful spot of the Coast. Duilio Marcante, one of Egidio Cressi's first collaborators (who, among other things, was able to roll rifle springs in his hands), started working by the sea very early, rising from the ranks of lifeguard and trawler fisherman. But even then, he distinguished himself from his colleagues because he used to dive, as all professional fishermen never swam in the sea, even though he did not use a mask or fins, as they had not yet been invented. |