Well those Italians sure know how to throw a party.

The evening dusk shows the silhouette of the jutting headlands of the Italian Riviera as the ferry gets closer to the specks of light atop the ridgeline close to the point. As we round the channel marker the seaside town of Portifino gets unmasked and there is a collective rush to the rail to see the sight of 100 yachts and boats of all types squeezed into a tiny harbor surrounded by a wide boardwalk filled with tables of the shops and fine restaurants in there adjacent pastel colored buildings.

The water reflected the glow of all the windows and lamps in a shimmer interrupted every so often by the swell of the ferry. Two hundred sailors exit the ferry to fill up the square and explore the side streets before making their way to the reception planned for them after a hard fought day of yacht racing in Genoa.

The destination is in Castle Brown, perched high atop the rocky point looking down on the town, and the Mediterranean on the opposite side. Apparently Napoleon himself was a visitor here once, however now the castle walls are adorned with large black and white photos of many stars of the movies, royalty, and celebrities alike.

Tonight the party has been organized by MBA students as part of the 2004 MBA Cup Yacht Racing Regatta. Twenty crews from all over Italy, Europe, and the world are drinking great wine, feasting on food, taking in the views, and dancing the night away till the racing starts again fresh, or in this case a little sleepily, the next morning.

I arrived in London after a long trip from Canada, unfortunately all the movies on the plane were for once excellent, and I just couldn't sleep. One night in London followed by an extremely early morning taxi ride to the airport to fly to Genoa Italy. Unfortunately for us the taxi driver was also not dealing too well with the wake up call as we caught him napping on the highway a few times, luckily regaining his open eyed state before anything catastrophic happened. Genoa is the gateway to the Italian Riviera, but its history is as one of the great ports of Europe, and as such it is still a bustling metropolis filled with traffic, noise, and people.



It is also where we got our first taste of the hospitality of our hosts, the SDA Bocconi School of Business. Right from the word go we had food and bottles of water laid out, lots of swag and nice glossy folders full of schedules, sailing instructions, invitations to the planned events, and a race yacht berthed right next to billionaire row at the Port Antico. This was not just near the center of the action, it is the center...

Our regatta started with a high note, a first place in the opening race...obviously shocked the hell out of us as this was the first time we had sailed together, and first race ever for three of the crew. Unfortunately this also shocked the other crews into gear and we were never to get another first place, they all went to the team from Barcelona. We did however keep them honest and fighting, crossing tacks, swapping gybes, with no more than a few boat lengths separated us at each finish line. The regatta ended with a business conference (about sailing) at the Genoa Aquarium with some notable speakers including the head of Pirelli, a Vice President of Rolex, and David Brooke the mastman from the Oracle BMW Americas Cup team. Dinner was as always a lavish affair, we dined with dolphins and sharks (separate tanks of course), through several different courses and several bottles of wine. The wine helping to pave the way for free drink tickets thanks to the event sponsors, and rum in the rooftop bar accross the road, just in case we were thinking of stopping the party.

As I crawled into my bed at 6am I was well aware that these Italians sure know how to throw a party!