UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

It's one of the largest university campuses in the United States, with the distinctive feature of being located in the very center of the city. All the university's buildings are built within a fairly small perimeter, which makes for a condensed visit with no downtime. You can start with the Red Gym, the unmistakable red-brick building at the entrance to the university, on the right as you come in from State Street. It now houses the Campus Information and Visitor's Center, where you can pick up maps of the campus. Built in 1892, the Red Gym housed nine hundred men during the Second World War. It featured an artillery hall, swimming pool and bowling lanes. The center of student life is the Memorial Union, also called "the terrace" by students. It's on the shores of Lake Mendota, just west of Langdon Street, and on sunny days you can study in the sun while watching the boats sail on the calm waters of the lake, or listen to free evening concerts organized by the university. The Memorial Union also features a restaurant, the Ratskeller, built under wide stone arches overlooking the lake, which looks a little like the Cercle des poètes disparus, with its walls covered in a collection of German beer mugs. Some fifteen thousand people pass through the doors of this building every day to enjoy either the restaurant, the two theaters or the art gallery.

Across Langdon Street is the State Historical Society, a museum and research center for Wisconsin history.

Bascom Hall, perched atop Bascom Hill in the center of campus, is exactly one mile from the Capitol. Between the two, there's nothing to obstruct the view. The sloping meadow that rises to Bascom Hall was the main scene of protest movements against the Vietnam War, when hundreds of white crosses were planted in the ground. The history of the protest movements came to a tragic end: the first student uprisings appeared following the arrival on campus of recruiters for the Dow Chemical Company, which manufactured the napalm used in Vietnam. Another target of protest was the Army Mathematics Research Center (AMRC), located in Sterling Hall, one of the university's buildings near Bascom Hill. It quickly became a magnet for student protests. On August 24, 1970, a bomb exploded right next to Sterling Hall, killing a student instantly. The accident put an end to the movement.

At the west end of the university, at the corner of Babcock and Observatory Drive, the twenty-two gardens of Allen Centennial Gardens offer a sampling of different landscaping styles from around the world. Here, students study botany and horticulture. The gardens are open daily from sunrise to sunset.

For those who enjoy a leisurely stroll along the lakeshore, take the Howard Temin Lakeshore Path, which leads along the south shore to Picnic Point, a one-mile peninsular outcrop with a delightful view of Madison. The small Geology Museum is open to visitors.