NEWSLETTER
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2013
ISSUE 1 - YEAR 10 | FUA/PALAZZI | FEB - MAR 2020
BREAKING NEWS
CREATING A SPACE OF NORMALITY: TOMMASINO BACCIOTTI FOUNDATION TEAMS UP WITH FUA-AUF BY MACI COSMORE | PHOTOS BY FUA-AUF STAFF At just nine months old, Tommaso “Tommasino”
controls sleep. One type of tumor that starts in this
Bacciotti was diagnosed with pineoblastoma, a rare
gland is called a pineoblastoma.” The condition known as
form of cancer. Two years later on Dec. 19, 1999, he lost
hydrocephalus is caused by a build-up of cerebrospinal
his battle. In his memory, parents Barbara and Paolo
fluid in the brain.
Bacciotti created the Tommasino Hospitality Project. For the first time, Florence University of the Arts - The
Just a month after Tommaso’s passing, his parents
American University of Florence is teaming up with the
decided to create a scholarship dedicated to his memory.
Tommasino Hospitality Project to host a cooking class
This scholarship would help send a doctor to New York
for children currently fighting cancer.
to research more about the care and treatments of pineoblastoma. Within the following ten years, the
Pineoblastoma, also referred to as “pineal gland tumor,”
couple created the Tommasino Hospitality Project,
is a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. According
an organization focused on the study, treatment, and
to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital website,
assistance for childhood cancers, especially brain
“The pineal gland is a tiny organ located deep inside the
tumors. Bacciotti said: “We lived two years, from 1997,
brain that secretes a hormone called melatonin, which
the year Tommaso was born, to 1999, the year he died,