On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Elma
I made a second trip to Italy in February 2011. It was also sponsored by the Wisconsin Alumni Association. “If you want to be a Badger, just come along with me…” It was a week in Rome with side trips to other points of interest.
Our hotel was within walking distance of the Spanish Steps. The first afternoon, before everyone had checked in, I walked over to see it. This was when sitting on the Steps was still permitted, and even though it was February and damn cold, I sat on the steps and ate my gelato.
Some of the sightseeing in Rome was in organized tours. Here we are heading to the Colosseum. Because we were with a tour, we could bypass the lines. The same was true at Vatican Museum.
Part of the Forum
Also saw the iconic statute of the She-wolf suckling Romulus and Remus on the Capitoline Hill. It is a replica, the original removed to some museum. The image is everywhere in Rome.
On our own, we found the Pantheon.
And the Trevi Fountain
This is Lauren. She was 15 at the time, traveling with her grandmother among this group of “well preserved” Badgers. I gave her an American dime to throw into the fountain to assure that we would all return to Rome someday. One evening at dinner, a couple of German émigrés, who had lived in Wisconsin for many years, were talking about escaping from East Germany as young adults. The next morning, I asked Lauren if she understood any of that conversation. She said they had studied about it in history class. (Feel old much ???)
On our last free afternoon in Rome, we went to Miss Babington’s Tea Room, a haunt of British tourists and literati in years past.
Everything in the Tea Room was decorated with cats, because Miss Babington kept cats.
oatler
and even though it was February and damn cold, I sat on the steps and ate my gelato.
Read that in Bogart’s voice
mrmoshpotato
Mushroom! Mushroom!
Great pictures.
eclare
Looks like you hit the highlights!
JPL
@mrmoshpotato: 😊
mrmoshpotato
@oatler: Of all the gelato joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.
raven
The Capitoline Wolf with Romulus and Remus stands in front of historic City Hall on Broad Street in downtown Rome, Georgia.
Butch
Didn’t realize you’re a Badger, or at least former. I am too.
Elma
@Butch: All my life. I lived in Chicago for a while when I started law school. But I transferred to UW in the middle of my second year because UW law grads had what they called the diploma privilege. We didn’t have to take the bar exam.
stinger
Looks like you had a great trip!
Ishiyama
Badger? By the bright shining light of the moon! Born in Madison, B.A. from U.W. – I bleed Badger red. As a teenager I saw John Brockington score 66 points for Ohio State against our team – and years later I was there when we finally beat them – anybody else remember the start of that 3rd quarter? “Ohio State Sucks!”. The chant started in the student section and spread around Camp Randall (in a stadium that was less than half-full),
Andrew Abshier
Spent a week in Rome in 2018. Made friends with a deli owner who got me to some churches with original artwork by Caravaggio, then cooked me a nice dinner with fresh sea bass and potatoes for €10–after he had closed for the night! People were still sitting on the Spanish Steps that year, but when the sun was out no one ever sat there, so you could still walk up.
smintheus
“some museum” ha ha ha, chiz. That’s the side of the museum in your photo.
way2blue
Rome. One of my sons took Latin in high school, and Spring break his 4th year—his class went to Italy to visit the settings in Virgil’s Æneid. I remember at the parent orientation—Mr E organizing Rome activities around cappuccino & gelato…
arrieve
Miss Babington’s! I’d forgotten all about that place–went there after visiting the room where Keats died, just on the other side of the Spanish Steps.
I avoided Rome for many many years after a horrible experience as a backpacking college student, when we were literally fondled, kissed, and non-stop harassed on the streets every time we ventured out in public. Going back there as a decidedly middle-aged woman I could finally look at all the things I’d missed the first time around. Thanks for the memories!
Butch
@Ishiyama: Grew up, or maybe I should say “raised,” since I’m not sure I ever grew up, on a farm in southeast Wisconsin, then B.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison…..
Elma
@Ishiyama: Born in Kenosha, went to school in Milwaukee and Madison, have lived on the Coolest Coast (Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Kewaunee) for the last 45 years. I find it hard to believe that Camp Randall was ever half empty. When I was in school there, everyone went for the party regardless of how bad the team was.
BigJimSlade
@mrmoshpotato: Long live early internet memes! It was the first thing I thought of, too:
youtube.com/watch?v=EIyixC9NsL
Also, yay, Rome :-)
BigJimSlade
Standing at the top of the Spanish Steps back in 1989 a bit before sunset was the first time I had seen the clouds (murmurations) of starlings swooping through the sky in all their crazy forms. I was mesmerized.
Ishiyama
@Elma: The Student Section was always full, but the alumni didn’t come to watch the losing seasons. But we had fun – watching the Portage Plumber joining the pom-pom girls.