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Antonio Casuar and Cosimo Campioto moved to Ballarat two years after the Olympics, deciding Australia was a better place to live their lives.

They settled down with two Australian women who had shown them around Ballarat.

"There are warm people here. I saw a place for my children, my great-grandchildren," said Mr Casuar.

"Ballarat struck us. We've been everywhere around the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia. Ballarat has good people, democratic people, friendly people."

It was clearly the people that kept Mr Casuar in Ballarat for years after moving to Australia.

"People would stop you in the street and say: 'Hello, I haven't seen you before!' They were just interested, you know," he said.

Mr Campioto said the semi-final race had not gone in the team's favour, despite coming in with a strong reputation.

They landed in the first lane, which was not as sheltered from the wind, he said.

"We were getting blown all over the place. It's like the water was boiling," said Mr Campioto.

Monika Campioto said she had fun showing the men around Ballarat during the Olympics.

"We took them to see films, to the theatre. They didn't understand a thing, but it was good fun," she said.

"I was collecting autographs during the Olympics, and looking at that book later, I was surprised to see I didn't have my husband's!"

Mr Casuar said much of the Italian team was taken with Australia, but only he and Mr Campioto ended up making the move .

Mr Campioto said one of the highlights of his early life in Ballarat was coaching a boys' rowing team from one of the schools, which placed second in a championship race in Melbourne.

"I would love to know what happened to those boys," he said.

He made the same offer to a school near his home in Sydney, but was disappointed to find they didn't have rowing programs.

Both men had been in the navy, and said they had faced some races somewhat tougher than the jaunt across Lake Wendouree.

"We did 230km off the coast of the Aegean. It was over four days, but in that seawater it was terrible," said Mr Campioto.

"We didn't really know what we were doing the first year we did it, but the second year, we won gold," said Mr Casuar.

They competed with the presidential guard for places in the Olympics, in a set-up far removed from the club and university system in many other rowing countries.

Although they were not competing at the masters, they keep in touch and have attended all the celebrations over the last few years, including the 50th anniversary.

alex.hamer@fairfaxmedia.com.au