Joe Pisciotta, a former teacher at T.C. Williams High School and local entrepreneur, gave his pontoon boat an Italian-inspired renovation over the summer and created what he calls “the world’s first gondola pontoon” boat.

Pisciotta was inspired to create the boat after he traveled to Tuscany, Italy this summer with a group of Lake Barcroft neighbors with whom he’s in an Italian supper club and spending a week in a villa.

After designing and having a CAD drawing made, Pisciotta had the 55 inch tall, 21 inch wide, 3/16 inch aluminum fins fabricated in Pennsylvania.

Then he cleaned and brush-finished the aluminum fins in Sterling and had a protective coating added to the aluminum fins in Baltimore. Each of the fins represents a different district in Tuscany.

Then Pisciotta installed the fins on the pontoons of the boat and, with neighbors on board, took the gondola pontoon on its maiden voyage with Italian wine, bread, cheese, grapes and the singing of “O Solo Mio,” among other Italian songs. On the boat’s maiden voyage, Pisciotta wore a traditional Italian gondolier white blue striped shirt and red scarf.