Karl Brumblebeard: a regatta a ferrari a crash new friends a jam and Joel Frankies

Portofino has been quite a focus for me lately.

So a regatta was in Portofino which is the crown jewel of the italian riviera. A short, but very steep bike ride away just to the west of Chiavari sits an incredibly tiny little nook that is probably the most beautiful during the ride there. I am possibly biased because I pretty much always think the bike ride is better than the destination, as the chase is always better than the conquest. There are a few girls from my past of which I would say both chase and conquest were exemplary and amazing but i digress. Portofino has no beach there, just street vendors, shops and restaurants etc etc.

Dan and I went there via bike and it was beautiful day (it always is here!), and traffic was light. It was dan's first long foray on the bike and the initial climb which is very steep out of Chiavari I think caught him off guard. He continued with aplomb though and we went through Zoagli, Rapallo, Santa Margherita and finally to Portofino. At one point we wound through this little horseshoe cove and came upon the most marvelous, emerald sparkling little beach and I nearly just left my bike and leapt over the handlebars into the water. That would have been bad, but I saved myself and rode on. Since we had a late start and it was a Sunday after all we decided to not do the Abbe Futtuoso hike (I am sure that is misspelled) and just go back to that secluded little cove.

The water here is that unreal and crystal clear greenish blue of postcards, websites and fantastical brochures. The mediterranean water is also somehow the most refreshing of any I have been in, and that is not simply because I'm usually sweating bullets before I get in...it just somehow feels the most amazing of any body of water I've been in. For example, I usually only go in water once, and as soon as I warm up again, I stay out. Here I'll go in three or four times.

On other notes, I was given a ferrari on my birthday at a small cafe where we had a Kaffe'

I have also had a crash (don't worry the bike's ok Eric!). I was going exceptionally fast downhill back from Portofino on my own and after a long day of the most epic water, scenery, cycling, etc. etc. I was flying around a turn and found that point at which the bike will not hold its line and it slid out from under me. The bike must have some sort of internal mechanism for saving itself because it slid out from under me, just on the pedal and then gently the tires hit the wall and it stood up and basically stayed there, propped up as if I had put it there myself.

As for myself, my right shoulder and just below my hip caught the brunt of the impact. Both have a bruise and quite a scrape. My left palm has a bout a 2 inch tear and my right forearm, knuckles and wrist are quite "scrape-y" as well as my right knee. Oh and a little one on my right ankle. It seems other than my decapitation everything is going fine. Actually my body is doing rather well without its brumblebeard.

Tonight may be a jam session at Frankie's, which is Joel's restaurant, which is also styled on a nyc burger diner. Joel is from the UK and his wife is Italian. Dan and I have made lots of new friends...tennis is on the horizon! And other than the crash life is good. Of course I'm a little pissed at myself for not taking things a little more "piano" around that turn, but its also good to know a bike's limits. So I guess I can still go hiking, so maybe via train Cinque Terre Here we come!!!

that amazing blue beach nestled in the horsehoe on the way to portofino...The public beach was only about 20ft wide by maybe 40 ft long. I called it sardine beach.