If you are looking for someone who applies Chinese philosophy where 'every crisis is an opportunity', then you must know the life of Ivo Pulcini and if you are lucky you can share some smiles with him.
Who is Ivo Pulcini? Just typehis name in google and you can find pages about him: cardiologist, sports doctor of many national federations and Lazio. He has cured the Dalai Lama, cardinals and many great showbiz personalities.
His hands are golden and he can feel all the biomechanical connections of our body so that with a touch he sorts out pains and traumas that seemed impossible to cure.
But Ivo is much more than all this in his resume. He is a true joy and an example for everyone. The first time we were introduced and he heard that I was a tour guide for the Lazio towns, he told me:
"I need you. In addition to my children, I love two things: my wife and my town of Leonessa, which at this moment needs to be promoted".
So we started to develop stories and a text for the bilingual guide. Leonessa is an incredible town at the foot of the Terminillo mountain where you breathe a particular air: in fact it was part of the Bourbon Kingdom and the plants of the countryside are different from the rest of the region. In the Renaissance it had a great period of prosperity thanks to the wool trade and a tax exemption due to the 'Madama', the daughter of the Grand Duke of Austria who had been its feudatory. If you do not know Leonessa I suggest you go and spend a few days walking in the woods and up the mountain.
But back to Ivo growing up at Villa Pulcini, one of the villages of Leonessa, and going to college in the seminary for a few years because they did not have the money for him to study. When I asked him why he chose to become a doctor, Ivo cited St. Thomas:
"I was guided by a phrase from St. Thomas that says: << I looked for God and I did not find him, I looked for myself and I did not find me, I looked for the others and I found all three >>.
Then I had three choices: serving the country, serving God or serving others. I chose to become a doctor and serve others.
The rivers do not drink their own water, the trees do not eat their own fruits, the sun does not shine for itself, and the flowers do not disperse their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is the rule of nature. Life is beautiful when you are happy, but life is much better when others are happy thanks to you. Our nature is to be at the service: those who do not live to serve do not need to live".
Even more daring was his student adventure. His father did not agree with the choice of medicine and Ivo had to study and work. After a couple of years of brilliant studies, he had to stop to earn money save and go to London where he worked as a barman, unauthorised taxi driver and event organizer. He learned languages (today he speaks 8) and came back to Italy to resume studying.
At the first examination he undertook his father did not understand that they were celebrating a single exam and he believes that his son was a graduate. Then the happy father put out announcements and communicated the good news to everyone. In order not to disappoint his father, Ivo went ‘underground’ and in a year finiashed 23 exams (three years in one) and graduated with honours.
Here's how a crisis becomes an opportunity.
Then after graduation he had to choose the specialization and once again life guided him. He had followed a basketball team, the Star A of Serie A as a secretary, to earn something already as a student and realized that this was a sector not yet muwell developed but that according to him would soon develop. As soon as he graduated, he became the team doctor, the youngest in Italy.
Working with young people was then stimulating and creative and working in competitions also meant launching daily challenges to be won. The French saying about participation is fine, but a team takes the field to beat the opponent.
So he took two specializations: one in cardiology and one in sports medicine and he also becomes a nutrition expert. His teams won and everyone began looking for him. In a short time he reached an incredible level of fame.
Like every one of us, Ivo has had to face the pitfalls of life and at one point he was accused of a crime in a court ordered by someone because, as the famous De Andrè song Bocca di Rosa says: 'si tirò addosso l'ira funesta delle cagnette a cui aveva sottratto l'osso' ('he pulled on himself the wrath of the sad dogs that he had stolen the bone from').
Ivo was alwlaughed in front of the judge who did not understand his state of lightness in the face of accusations and he brought a whole team to testify that he was out of Italy that day and could not have committed any crime. He paid the trip for 20 athletes from abroad and finally even the judge laughed, though irritated by the loss of time.
Once again a choice and once again an opportunity. He started a career at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome but after a while he abandoned it and threw himself headlong into sport where he also studied doping.
His style is not to be satisfied and he was so much respected that he was invited by the German Government to Berlin and for 6 hours discussed in parliament with the world's top experts in WADA (World Anti Doping Agency). After this meeting also Germany followed Italy (law 376/2000) and issued an anti-doping law. His advice had all been well received.
But he also became one of the leading experts in Manual Medicine and Clinical Posturology, so to speak: that able to raise athletes even after a tough battle in the field. Have you ever wondered if the athletes are pretending pain or if someone is able to solve the effects of a hard clash in a short time? Here, you can ask Ivo Pulcini.
As a consequence of the results of the athletes he has led and for the international doping commissions he is known all over the world and with his ability to learn languages he works almost everywhere.
Ivo Pulcini and Leonessa
In all this he always manages to find space for Leonessa and founded the Pro Loco that in 1990 organizes the famous 'Petata Festival: Arosta, Lessa and Rescaldata'. And this is a question you should not joke about. As a good visionary, Ivo understood that for marketing reasons it was necessary to focus on the roots, the petata, using the dialect but also combining scientific bases as a healthy diet based on the properties of the mountain potato.
But those who followed him deleted the scientific part and changed the name to 'Potato Festival' losing all the effect of the contrast and putting it in competition with hundreds of other festivals in Italy.
Ivo has created a FB page and fights like a lion in order to give notoriety to his Leonessa and to stimulate it to fly higher and higher.
But FB is his absolute kingdom. He has different profiles and you can find his passion for Ferraris, for the collecting of motorbikes (he has the motorbike No. 1 of the Duce and the Vespa of Roman Holiday ridden by Audrey Hepburn).
And then he is active to promote associations: "A heart for all ... all for a non-profit heart", gold medal of the Presidency of the Republic, founded in 1997 with Fabrizio Frizzi and Little Tony, and 'Children with heart disease in the world' founded with Dr. Alessandro Frigiola, which has saved 1650 children with cardiac disease, has created a pediatric heart surgery centre in Damascus and a village in Barranqueras (Chaco) in Argentina for over 100 poor children with their families: the "Barrio Ugo Pulcini". Finally an official recognition by the Dalai Lama for contributing to the construction of the Tibetan Children's Village in India.
But we close with a message that he wrote on his profile and dedicated to young people who touched his heart:
"Here is a message of hope for the young unemployed and without a future. Dear friends, if it is true that the examples are the driving force (exempla trahunt: the Latins were the masters of the world), I assure you that the impossible does not exist and all dreams can become reality. Just believe and want it.
I was as wild as Tarzan, without culture, illiterate, without means and on the verge of survival. I discovered only a few years ago that my villagers of Villa Pulcini and Leonessa, wagered that I would be dead before 20 years of age, such were the conditions of life impossible.
Now I began to dream, to dream, to dream with open eyes and to plan my life. I have reached seemingly impossible goals. You can do it too, if I succeeded, Mr. Nobody!
Important rule always respect everything and everyone.
But above us there is only God, under us none: even the so-called last can be better than us.
Never be afraid of anything or anyone, as I was not afraid of wolves as a child. An example of my existential difficulties that have turned evil into good and which, perhaps, will make you smile: at home I did not have a bathroom, light and water. I was washing naked in the snow.
Since then I have never washed myself with hot water, but I have never had an influence. I did not have the Asian, Hong Kong, or others. And I've never vaccinated. Never a day of absence at work.
You can do it and you have to do it for sure too. Good luck (long live the wolf!). Share with me your dreams and I will help you to realize them. The impossible does not exist.
A big hug to everyone. "
Ivo Pulcini
How could we not deliver the Town Ambassador Award to Ivo Pulcini? And how can we not ask him to help with his example so many young people can love their town and country and build their own future by engaging professionally in the creation of businesses focused on enhancing the territory and organic farming?
We will invite you to attend the first meeting of all Town Ambassadors.
Thanks Ivo for your smile, love and for the professionalism with which you face life. You remind me of a great poet.
Ivo Pulcini is Founding member of NAIM (New Italian Association in the World).
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