Forks in the Trail: Houston/Miller European Vacation

April: Royce and I flew from Tel Aviv to Milan, Italy to meet our very good friends Nicki, Tyler, and Nicki's brother Ben. We were so excited to see friends after 5 months of minimal communication, and also to be back in Europe. No more sand in our food! We quickly learned that every form of transportation in Italy was unreliable, and that the food was tasty. We spent Thanksgiving together in Milan and did a pretty good job of creating a Thanksgiving feast. We had to be creative, but in the end it was scrumptious. We toured Milan, caught up on sleep, drank lots of vino, and headed towards the mountains to Zermatt, Switzerland.

Zermatt was very cold! Nicki and I decided that massages and shopping sounded much better than skiing in the frigid temperatures. Royce, Ben, and Tyler, however, could not resist the temptation and braved their way up towards the Matterhorn. Royce ended up freaking everyone out when he got frostbite on his nose, but other than that they all survived.

After Zermatt, we worked our way south into warmer weather. We stopped in Nice, France, where we thawed out and tried some authentic French food. We had no idea what to expect once we ordered and nearly died when they brought out the meat platter for Ben and Nicki. It was enormous! We also ventured over to Monaco and walked around the tiny country, which was compact and luxurious. We admired the bright lights, big yachts, and beautiful architecture.

Our next stop was Genoa, Italy. We searched for a long time in the rain for a hotel, and finally settled on one. Our next mission was to find pizza....You would be amazed at how difficult this can be between the hours of 2 and 7 pm. The following day we took the train from Genoa to Cinque Terra. We hiked along the coastline, drank vino, and absorbed the beauty of the terrain and ocean. This has got to be one of my favorite places in Italy! Unfortunately, the trains going to and fro can be more than frustrating. This was our last full day with our friends, and we were very sad to see them go!

Nicki, me, Ben, and Tyler in Zermatt