perfect timing

My good friends Ryan and Sarah O'Connor arrived in Rome on Wednesday night, which was perfect timing for me to get to come to Rome and spend time with them. I had a visit on Thursday morning scheduled at the Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza Mendel Institute (for medical genetics) in Rome, and also have an appointment to visit Sacre Cuore medical school and two Catholic Hospitals in Rome(Gemelli and Bambino Gesu) on Monday. In between all this, we are having a great time exploring Italy! Today we made a day trip to Pompeii, and Sunday will be heading to Florence. The pictures are a sampling of some of the events of the past few days. I want to write more and explain everything, but I should get to bed because it's about 2am here and we have a big day planned for tomorrow too. I will give the explanations of what's what soon... have a great day!!

a special day

My good friend Amy commented on my last post that this seems to good to be true. She is right!! My heart is so full & I love this place so, so much. It is an amazing experience to wake up and live each day knowing that it is a concrete answer to a prayer. The blessings have been so extravagant this summer, and only God knows why.

Today was a very special day. Dr. Murgo arranged for a meeting with Dr. Gusso, who was the very first medical director of the hospital, chosen by Padre Pio himself. Dr. Gusso is a beautiful man. He shared with me some of his memories, his wisdom, and his great love for Padre Pio. This all was a very special blessing. I wrote down what he said nearly word for word, and am looking forward to the ways I might be able to share these experiences with others. That is a prayer of mine as the summer moves along because I know that these experiences aren't just for me.

Standing between representatives of the past and the present of this great hospital, Dr. Murgo and Dr. Gusso

Dr. Murgo is an absolutely wonderful person, and is the one who so graciously extended the invitation for me to come to the hospital this summer. I had heard about the hospital and had a very strong desire to spend the summer here. I searched online and his was the address that I was able to find. I sent him an e-mail on February 3rd and on February 4th I received his reponse:

Dear Nicole,
I’m pleased for your letter in which you say that is your hope to come in Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza... I think that you will be able to come here and see our way of work. You must ask an authorization to the General director of the Hospital and to the Sanitary Director, in which you indicate the period and the Unit that you want to attend... I will be happy to have you in my Unit (you can ask it). The website of the hospital is: www.operapadrepio.it.
Ok, good luck, let me know every thing.
By, Roberto Murgo

So it began!! It's hard to believe that was just 5 months ago, and it's amazing to me how everything worked out for writing the project proposal, receiving funding from Pitt, etc. Wow. I am truly in awe. What are the chances of all of this happening?? Finding an e-mail address for a doctor who not only happens to speak English, but also has a heart of gold and generosity beyond compare. He and his wife Elvira told me the day that I arrived that they wanted to host me as if I were their own daughter. They have given me the most lovely little apartment to live in right by the hospital, and have been so wonderful to me. I truly don't know how to thank them. I will be grateful to this good man for the rest of my life!! If you would like to, please help me thank him by saying a prayer in thanksgiving for him and his wife. Thank you!

This is the hallway of the thoracic surgery unit. At this statue of Our Lady the patients gather to pray the rosary each evening.

Here are a few more pictures from the hospital. The statue is at the main entry, at the top of the first main staircase. The posters and signs are typical of the types of things you see walking through the hospital.

"Totus Tuus" was Pope John Paul II's apostolic motto. It means "totally yours."

"Padre Pio bless always the hearts, hands and minds of those who work in your 'home'."

weekend in pictures

This was a back-to-back-to-back beach weekend with Claudia and Francesco and some of their friends. Friday and Saturday we went to Mattinata, and on Sunday we went to a beach a little north of Mattinata on the way to Vieste. It was beautiful! The following photos are from this beach. Basically, there are about 5-10 meters (at most) of little pebbles that separate the edge of the mountain from the sea. It is spectacular!!!

There are caves along some parts where the mountain directly touches the sea.

After the day at the beach on Sunday we went to mass at Francesco and Claudia's parish, San Guisseppe (Saint Joesph). Francesco plays the organ and helps lead the choir-- so talented!! A highlight for me was meeting Franceso's family and having dinner with them after mass. It was such a treat!! I've mentioned what an angel Francesco is, and his parents and sister (I wasn't able to meet his brother, but I'm sure he's great too) are just as wonderful. What an awesome family!!

Francesco's sister Anna, his father Marco, mother Dora, me, Francesco, and his cousin (also) Francesco.

This weekend I also had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Antonio Trotto. Mr. Trotta was a nurse at the hospital for many years, and was one of the several nurses who helped take care of Padre Pio when he was ill. Mr. Trotta's son Salvatore works at the hospital as well, and has become one of my friends. Salvatore also took me on a wonderful tour of the new church dedicated to Saint Pio, which I will post pictures of soon.

I instantly liked Mr. Trotta the moment I met him. He has a very wonderful spirit and immediately extended the warmest kindness to me. (Mom and Dad, if you want to visit San Giovanni Rotondo, he wants you to stay at his house!) He also suggested several timss that I should just stay in San Giovanni Rotondo, and not go back to the US. I explained that I need to finish school, to which he answered, "Well then after you can come back and work at the hospital!"

Here we are in a picture together-- Mr. Trotta, me and Salvatore. I love the pink shirt.

Going for a pizza with Marco (works as a tour guide here), Francesco and Salvatore.

Time for bed... more soon. In the meantime have a wonderful day, and God bless you!

i could get used to this!

Yesterday after work Francesco and Claudia picked me up for a trip to Mattinata-- a nearby town about 30 minutes from here on the Adriatic Sea. So beautiful!!! The best part about the day... they asked me if I want to come back with them today (Saturday). As I titled the post, I could definitely get used to this & if you don't see me back in Pittsburgh in August, you'll know where to find me :-)

Francesco and Claudia are two of the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet.

I also want to give a special thanks to Dr. DiCorcia and the wonderful staff of the pulmonology department at the hospital. Dr. DiCorcia has worked at the hospital for 30 years and invited me to spend the morning with him, which made for another good experience here at the hospital.

The pulmonology staff

Dr. DiCorcia wanted me to get to meet his family and invited me to have an AMAZING home cooked lunch with them at their home. I got to meet his wife Micaela (who works at the hospital as well helping to direct all of the continuing education programs and conferences ), his 18 year old daughter Roberta and his 2 year old son Emanuele. (They have an older daughter away at school right now too.) They are a beautiful family! We ate pasta with a delicious homemade sauce and an eggplant dish that was one of the best things that I have ever eaten. Thank you so much Dr. and Mrs. DiCorcia! I am sad that I forgot to take a picture with the family, but if I see them again before I leave, I will be sure to take a photo.


When I got home from the beach I made myself a little pizza... fresh tomatoes, artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese. It's definitely not as good as Mrs. Rizzi's pizza recipe, but I was happy with it. All in all, it was a wonderful day, and I am looking forward to heading back to the beach today. I hope you all are having a good weekend!

ps. My e-mail isn't working for some reason this morning. The internet is working, but not e-mail, so if you've sent a note I hope it will be working again soon.

a few more units visited...

Welcome to "La Scuola Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza." This is the school that is part of the pediatric oncology unit. Needless to say, it is a very special place.


The school is run by this wonderful women, Cinzia Patrizio. The children love her. After spending about 5 minutes with her, it is very easy to see why! She has a huge heart, and is very sensitive of the children and their needs. She is perfect for the job.


In addition to showing me the school she also took me around the entire unit. I think that I met at least 2 or 3 nurses and a few doctors as well who all immediately said that it is the best unit in the hospital. One thing is for sure... the people I met love their work because they love the children entrusted to their care. It was beautiful to see.



Later in the afternoon I spent a few hours with Dr. Mangiacotti in the radiology unit. The unit has all of the most modern equipment and technologies & I especially liked the voice-recognition dictation system. The computers have been programmed to recognize the doctors' voices, so the doctors can dictate radiology results into microphones attached to computers that instantly type whatever they say. Amazing!

Here I am with Dr. Mangiacotti (on the left) and Donato, the head technician in the unit.

Donato shared a few stories about Padre Pio, including receiving communion from him and serving mass for him as an altar boy. He also was very excited to show me this picture of when he met Mother Teresa when she visited San Giovanni Rotondo.


Yesterday I spent the day with Dr. Murgo, the head of the breast cancer surgery unit (and my mentor for my project this summer) and was able to observe his surgeries. I will write more about Dr. Murgo soon (and get a picture of him too), but for now, I just wish to say how thankful I am to him for inviting me to come to the hospital this summer!! Here I am getting ready to observe his surgery & I thought my mom might like to see this picture.

Have a great day everyone!!

my italian "angels"

There are two people who have been absolute angels to me since I met them. They are Tiziana Petrucelli and Francesco Guilliani. Tiziana and Francesco both work in administration at the hospital, and my project wouldn't be possible without all of the help that they have provided.

Front: Francesso and his lovely wife Claudia
Back: Tiziana and me

Collectively Tiziana and Francesco have helped me translate all of my questions, sent staff-wide e-mails on my behalf, taught me everything they know about the mission and the vision of Padre Pio, introduced me to wonderful physicians and researches, and most of all, have been an incredible source of support and friendship during my time here. I couldn't be more thankful for these two amazing people who I am now very blessed to call my friends.

Tiziana is leaving on Thursday for her vacation (and I'll be gone when she gets back) so last night we all went out to dinner together. It was a great night! In the customary way here, dinner began around 9:30. After dinner we went for gelatto and took a long walk through the city center and the "old town" of San Giovanni Rotondo. We walked some streets that are over 1,000 years old, which is incredible to me. Also incredible to me is that the streets were packed! The center of town is dead in the middle of the afternoon (siesta time), but from 9-midnight (or even 1am they said), the streets are full. Families, kids, older people, couples... everyone is out walking, and I'd guess at least about half are having gelatto :-)

I had a wonderful time last night and can't thank Tiziana and Francesco enough for such a great night. I just hope that they will come to the US to visit so I can return the kindness and hospitality that they have given to me!!

Claudia, Mario (a co-worker of Tiziana and Francesco), Tiziana and me

Claudia and Franceso are the sweetest couple in San Giovanni Rotondo!!

Mario, Francesco, me, Claudia and Tiziana

I went to bed as soon as I got home last night because today I was spending the day with the chief of general surgery, Dr. Di Sabastiano (picture on the left), and wanted to be ready for the day. It was another amazing day at the hospital and I continue to learn more than I thought possible. Tomorrow I will be with my mentor, Dr. Murgo, in the breast cancer surgery unit. I also have a visit planned this week with radiology, physical medicine and rehabilitation and pediatric oncology.

I don't think I can express how much I love it here. God bless you all!

good advice

I took a walk on Saturday down to the center of town and found this sign that made me smile. Indiana!! I lived in Indiana for almost ten years, though, and somehow completely missed the elephants. Hmm...


These next few pictures I took for Beau-- these few pictures don't do it justice, but the town square is pretty much a scene from "Grumpy Old Men." Everywhere you look!!! These are just a few shots, but there are places where 10, 20 even 30 men or so are all sitting around on the benches together enjoying life. It's a great scene, and Beau loved it when he was here so these next few are for you Beau--



These last few pictures are of my new friends from New Jersey & Philadelphia, Msgr John, Fr. Tom and Fr. Tom's brothers Tim and John. I met them last night as I was walking home from the hospital. I had a feeling they were American, and I said hello. We struck up a conversation quickly and they invited me to join them for dinner (and of course gelatto after :-) They are such wonderful people, and it was a huge blessing to get to meet them and spend time with them last night. I am so grateful!!!

We had wonderful conversations at dinner-- very uplifting and encouraging! At one point I asked if they had any advice for how I can bring all that I am experiencing home with me and Fr. Tom said, " with humility, dignity and love." Such good advice to think about. Msgr. John also shared his motto, "Be not afraid" and sent me off with the most beautiful blessing. I was reminded (as I have been many times this summer) that there are no strangers in the body of Christ. For that I am very, very thankful.

Enjoy today!!

Tim recommends the "watermelon and banana combo"

Me, Tim, John, Msgr John and Fr. Tom

More new friends...

When Padre Pio founded this hospital he had a very clear vision for it to be a "place of prayer and science." As much as he emphasized the spiritual aspects of the relief of suffering (which might seem most natural coming from a priest) Padre Pio urged the hospital to reach the highest levels of technical excellence and science.

As my friend Tiziana put it, "A pius cook is not necessarily a good cook yet." She explained Padre Pio's idea that if you work believing that you are taking care of the body of Christ "you have to do more, to strive for greatness and to be audacious." "This is the testimony of our faith," she said.

I mention all this to introduce to you a few of my new friends. As Padre Pio envisioned, Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (CSS) is a leading research institute in Italy. These wonderful women make up the breast cancer research team led by Doctoressa Paola Parrella (the woman on the far left). Doctoressa Parrella did her post-doc in genetic oncology at Johns Hopkins. She is brilliant and collegial, disciplined and humble, and certainly helping through her efforts to carry on the founding vision of Padre Pio.


CSS is strong in genetic research, and has an entire other research institute located in Rome (the Mendel Institute) which I'll get to visit in a few weeks. For any science-minded friends who are interested, you can see a list of some of the publications coming out of the CSS labs here. (Click on "visualizza"-- they all are published in English.) You also can also PubMed search the name "Dallapiccola B(runo)" He is the scientific director of CSS, the Mendel Institute and the director of the "Sceinza e Vita" (Science and Life) commmittee which I'm looking forward to learning more about when I visit him in Rome in a few weeks.

Rafaella extracts RNA from tumor tissue samples.

This last picture is one I took tonight in the thoracic surgery unit. I spend a good amount of time at an office in this unit working on my project, and the nurses and staff have been so kind to me. Today Anna came by around 5:00 and invited me for coffee in their little break room. I ended up staying in the nurses station until about 9:30 talking in between their work with Anna and (through her help) the rest of the group. She is the best, and it's been a huge blessing to have an english speaking friend in the unit!! I love this group!!

Nicola, Patrizia, me and Anna

Goodnight all! I hope you had a great 4th of July!!

Grazie Dr. Di Vagno!

This blog is dedicated to thanking my new mentor and friend, Dr. Giovanni Di Vagno. Dr. Di Vagno is the chief of the Ob-Gyn unit at Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, and a wonderful, wonderful person. I sent out an e-mail last week to a few doctors asking if I might be able to visit their units, and Dr. Di Vagno wrote back right away saying that if I came to his office on Monday that he would be happy to show me around.

I showed up on Monday morning, and Dr. Di Vagno did much more than show me around. He handed me a pair of scrubs and for the next three days proceeded to teach me more about Ob-Gyn than I thought possible. It was amazing!

Dr. Di Vagno's specialty is gynecologic oncology, and he is a gifted surgeon. He allowed me to observe his surgeries and to make rounds and see his patients with him as well (all while taking the time to teach me and to involve me in everything that was going on.) Dr. Di Vagno also introduced me to the Italian treat called "espressi freddi" (I'm sure I didn't get the spelling right... think ice cream + espresso) and the fine art of the coffee break. He treated me to lunch each day, and took the time to introduce me to practically everyone that we ran into as well. In my opinion the technical experiences I gained are definitely secondary to the mentor and teacher I now have who embodies the kind of physician that I'd like to be someday.

You are a wonderful doctor and a gifted teacher Dr. Di Vagno! I can't express my thanks enough to you for taking me under your wing. I hope our paths will cross again... let me know if you make it to Pittsburgh, or I'll just have to come back to Italy sometime :-) Have a wonderful vacation!!