Bologna, August 10, 2026 – The immense and sudden pain that has entered our lives like an axe makes us understand even more the gift we have had and that nothing is in our hands.”
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Giampaolo Ugolini has just lost his 19-year-old son, who died at sea in Rivabella, Gallipoli, while swimming with a friend. A sudden death, terrible, that finds no logical explanation. Tommaso – son of the head of Surgery in Ravenna and nephew of regional councilor Elena Ugolini – freshly graduated from Malpighi, with a path as a footballer, was on vacation in Puglia: he was swimming, had a sudden illness, and fell to the bottom of the water.
The sea was calm. At 7:30 pm – the time he dived – it was no longer even too warm. Afterwards, they tried to resuscitate him for 45 minutes. In vain. And he “had always been well, he was healthy”, as his aunt Elena also emphasized, devastated by grief.
Tommaso could have also been an artist because, like his grandfather Ugo, he had an incredible ‘hand,’ but he had decided to follow the same path as his father, a very skilled surgeon
The funeral in Rimini
Even though within an indescribable despair, the parents find the strength to share a thought: if life ended like this, in a morgue, it would be a true absurdity. And this is the concept that will be expressed and reported in his memory for the final farewell through the words of Henry Scott Holland. The final farewell to Tommaso will be celebrated today in Rimini, the family announces.
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“The funeral of our angel Tommaso will be tomorrow (today, ed.) Monday, August 10 at 5:30 pm in the church of Sant’Agostino in Rimini, immediately after we will accompany him for the last embrace at the San Martino Monte l’Abate cemetery. Signed the parents Emanuela and Giampaolo with sisters Benedetta and Arianna. Tommaso had chosen to enroll in Medicine. Following in his father’s footsteps. Condolences also come from Alma Mater.
An endless heartbreak
Bologna and Rimini mourn him, schoolmates, many friends. Inconsolable aunt Elena: “Tommaso was a handsome 19-year-old boy, kind, helpful, full of friends, quiet, but ready with a joke that makes you smile. He had just enrolled in Medicine – says the regional councilor –. He could have also been an artist because, like his grandfather Ugo, he had an incredible ‘hand,’ but he had decided to follow the same path as his father, a very skilled surgeon who, like mom Emanuela, loved him absolutely from the first day he came into the world. Two parents shattered by grief like the two slightly older sisters.”
Tommaso was also an athlete. “He had no physical problems – Elena Ugolini emphasizes again –. He was a good swimmer. The sea in Gallipoli was calm, they were close to the shore. And it happened. His friends never saw him again and found him at the bottom of the sea where the water was no more than two meters deep. Perhaps a sudden, inexplicable illness. Someone wrote to me: ‘What light will come from all this?’ I really hope that this excruciating pain can somehow be comforted and illuminated. What my brother told me this morning struck me:
“Tommaso was taken from us like this, suddenly, we could do nothing for him. It was an immense gift.”
