Summer began with a trip to Middleton and a stay at Walter's. We were to put in the pier but luckily the neighbors, Dr. Crummy, and his friends had already done the work.
We simply had to run the electrical line 85 feet to the boat hoist. That 'only' took us the better part of a day. We also moved 2 yards of rock in Walter's Lincoln to trim the yard by the pier. Lincoln's aren't made for hauling rock. Four buckets at a time. The guy at Bruce's just looked at me and shook his head. But I did the shoveling so he became my newest best buddy. The rock cost $40.00 and the gas to get it ......$39.98.
Fortunately, Beth our niece, had us over for dinner. The food was wonderfully prepared by a Italian trained cook, not chef, cook. The wines were great and just as we left, Gary, showed up. He had been stuck in weather and had driven up. Hi... Good bye, wish we could stay, see you next time.
On Wednesday Terry called and I told him I was in Wisconsin and he said so was Noel, to receive a prestigious Alumni award, and he was coming Thursday. Noel had won the award for all the years and all the help she had given the UW Dance and Theatre dept. So we all got together in Middleton. We don't see each other for 6 month in Colorado but meet for lunch in a Middleton diner. How fun. Terry's sister, Jackie had bought a house in Paoli and was starting a "Arts Retreat Camp" A big job but it was happening, slowly. Good luck, lots of work
Terry and Bobbe, Noel above. I took the pics, I look better that way... Just think Marcello in "Under the Tuscan Sun".
A few weeks after we got back Cody flew in to visit for the weekend. He and Jess drove up from Denver. We hadn't seen 'the boy' since '07 Winter Carnival. We sure have missed him and Molly. She was in New Orleans for some NBC meetings. We drank and she worked. Sorry Molly we'll see you soon also. The flowers hadn't started yet and the trees weren't in bloom. When will winter end is all we could say. Above we bore the kids with the "Italy Trip Pics". Just 406 more to see!!!
A picture of Jess. She is traveling a lot and seems to be doing well. A few weeks after this we helped her move into a "cool" new studio apartment near Coors field and the Platte river. Her Cat, Buddy, still hasn't totally accepted the move. He'll get used to that early morning sun and not always wake Jess at 3 a.m. Maybe
This is just one of four pictures Cody took of himself. One from each direction. Strange boy. but good.
A few weeks later, the last week in May, Lyssie Walter graduated SSHS. Time flys way to fast. I know Pat and maybe Beth remember Lyssie when she was so little. She and her brother Casey and Abe are moving to California in a few weeks, near Santa Barbara, on the beach. We'll miss them all.
Finally, in June, the house has blossoms and flowers and green grass. I even enjoy cutting it this early in the year. Bobbe does yard patrol, dandelions and weeds fear for your lives. She hunts them down and 'Extracts' them from the ground. I just mow right over everything. Slash and burn is my motto. She's a surgeon and I'm Gangis Kahn.
The back yard flowers. We just love the summers in Steamboat. Our yard is great and easy to maintain. Plus we can pat our backs over a couple of beers or glasses of 'Les Clos', aha Cody can you bring some next time. Without the "Neck" I have to pay for wine. What a bad concept.
Terry and Bobbe, Noel above. I took the pics, I look better that way... Just think Marcello in "Under the Tuscan Sun".
A few weeks after we got back Cody flew in to visit for the weekend. He and Jess drove up from Denver. We hadn't seen 'the boy' since '07 Winter Carnival. We sure have missed him and Molly. She was in New Orleans for some NBC meetings. We drank and she worked. Sorry Molly we'll see you soon also. The flowers hadn't started yet and the trees weren't in bloom. When will winter end is all we could say. Above we bore the kids with the "Italy Trip Pics". Just 406 more to see!!!
A picture of Jess. She is traveling a lot and seems to be doing well. A few weeks after this we helped her move into a "cool" new studio apartment near Coors field and the Platte river. Her Cat, Buddy, still hasn't totally accepted the move. He'll get used to that early morning sun and not always wake Jess at 3 a.m. Maybe
This is just one of four pictures Cody took of himself. One from each direction. Strange boy. but good.
A few weeks later, the last week in May, Lyssie Walter graduated SSHS. Time flys way to fast. I know Pat and maybe Beth remember Lyssie when she was so little. She and her brother Casey and Abe are moving to California in a few weeks, near Santa Barbara, on the beach. We'll miss them all.
Finally, in June, the house has blossoms and flowers and green grass. I even enjoy cutting it this early in the year. Bobbe does yard patrol, dandelions and weeds fear for your lives. She hunts them down and 'Extracts' them from the ground. I just mow right over everything. Slash and burn is my motto. She's a surgeon and I'm Gangis Kahn.
The back yard flowers. We just love the summers in Steamboat. Our yard is great and easy to maintain. Plus we can pat our backs over a couple of beers or glasses of 'Les Clos', aha Cody can you bring some next time. Without the "Neck" I have to pay for wine. What a bad concept.Bobbe at the Wipperfurth Cottage sign " since 1922" And every single tool and scrap of wood is still behind those garage doors. Walter's father built the original cottage in '31 or something like that. Bobbe would come out from Madison in the summer. No running water and no toilets. Things have changed alot in 70+ years.
Two blocks the other direction was Trevi Fountain. It truly is beautiful. And the women were all dancing in the fountain. Bobbe resisted but I do have that picture. There were lots of Romans with full body armour there so you could take your picture with them.... for 5 euro.
That's me facing the camera. Had to get up on a rim to be seen. This place sits in a small alley, but the crowds were never ending. By this time Bobbe was beginner fluent and we got around pretty well . We left the fountain and walked for miles...and miles.... did I say we were lost.... after miles of gumshoeing it Bobbe asked a policeman, in Italian , where the f... are we? Or something to that effect.
More Trevi fountain. It is just so over the top in art.
The lines here were very long. Bobbe saw a short line and the guide said if you join a tour you get to cut the line. The usual 45 min. wait was two minutes and we were in. It's just money. Bobbe was afraid people would be mad at us for cutting the line. They just followed us. We were at the colosseum watching people and having a drink when we spotted a 'street vendor' selling a scarf to a German tourist family. Some police pulled up, the 'vendor' split for parts unknown and the police followed. The Germans, I could tell by the black leather coats and high boots, just stood there. They hadn't paid yet and now they had no one to pay. What to do?? They had tried to pay, they had no place to return the "merchandise", what a conundrum? Finally they walked off, with the scarf.
These are two guards somewhere... I don't know how they got in my story but they were very official looking. Below is the. ..ONLY... cat we saw in the Colosseum. We had expected to see hundreds of feral cats.... but just one little skinny cat. The stories must be all hype for tourists or cat lovers. Stupid is as stupid does.
2000 years old. It's amazing. Below are some flowering trees, haven't a clue what kind, in the Palatine gardens. Home of the wealthy Roman families. Talk about starter castles and McMansions today. These people did it up really big. Skip the slaves that died building this stuff but....
After a metro ride back to the hotel we rested, beers in hand and napped. Vacations are fun. We again ate at the only restaurant which served food before 11 p.m. How do you eat at that hour and then go to work the next day? We would go into a place about 6:30 or if we could wait 7:00 and hope to get food by 8:00. I lost 15# on this trip, mostly because I fell asleep before dinner. Just kidding.... about falling asleep that is.
The next, and last morning, we went to the Pantheon. It's the greatest Roman building not completely sacked by the Visigoths or whomever. My Roman history is a little lame and very forgotten. I'll do better next time. The building isn't much to look at from the outside but inside... a perfect semisphere dome. The height equals the diameter exactly, 43.5m. It's a big whoa!! We were the first ones through the gates and had the place to ourselves, quiet and wonderful.
The lamb above was on an altar in the Pantheon. Bobbe thought he had the sweetest smile. So we crawled up some monument, no one was looking, and took this picture. Sweet
Just outside and around a corner was this "Bernini's Elefantino" at the Basilica Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. I've shown some of this before in different context, so go back and read everything again you slackers.
This is a Michelangelo "Christ bearing the cross" in the church. His ... parts are covered... I was told this happened at some point in time because people insisted. Why just a few statues are covered I don't know. I didn't look under the cloth. I think a kilt would look better.
We checked out of the hotel and took the sub to Termini, from there, the Leonardo Express to a hotel at the airport. We left the next morning at 6 a.m. for home. We left the green of a March Roma for the brown of a March Denver and the white of Steamboat Springs. We also left the crowds for the open spaces and the dinginess of cities for the clean skies of Colorado. 
Marcello & Barbara
on his head. Every guide book and every DVD travel guide show poor Cosimo with pigeons doing their thing on his head.
Our first real touristy thing was to go to the 
This is Bobbe with a lion. Have you noticed she likes cats. When we were cruising around especially in the 
The 
This is a picture of our landlady early one morning. It really wasn't that warm out but who am I to tell her. She had lots of friends and cousins around the city and a whole contingent of friends and family in Roma.
The school had a Saturday afternoon program where a different professor would take a field trip with students each week. We went and the trip took us to 
this is the courtyard just outside the chapel where the statue rests. The place was so quiet and peaceful .... also built for munchkins. ... as I write this the snow has started again.... god I should have prayed for sun when I was at 
This is Russell, Barbara and Giovanni. Russell was in Bobbe's language class and my cooking class. So we got to know him. We happen to meet three times this day by accident. First at the Internet cafe, then at 
This is Bobbe with a cat at 
Santa Croce from the top of the 
When we had seen most of the chapels we noticed a lot of very special statues along the wall. "This the burial place of Dante Alighieri", "This is where Michelangelo is buried", "This is the resting place of Machiavelli", "here lies Marconi" it was really amazing how many very famous people from 100's of years were buried here. .....There was also a leather school where Bobbe bought her only souvenir, a small coin purse. 
Above is our future apartment. It's in Piazza Santa Croce and had the most wonderful green growth. Picture yourself on the balcony giving beauty waves to the throngs down below. We just came from the mountains you remember. Snow etc.
We only stayed in one very nice hotel. This was the shower. It was in the middle of the room between the toilet and the bidet. When I figured out what it was and told Bobbe she...looked....looked again.... NO, NO I don't believe you!!! then another look and ..Oh my God. I stripped naked on the spot and took a shower. It was weird. Drain on floor and a whole room around you. If the room had had jets in the ceiling I would have felt like a '57 Buick going through a car wash on University ave, with no one watching of course.