What I liked
Atlantis is an extremely professional company that has thought through each step of the program for its fellows down to the hour. The freedom they granted allowed me to travel all around Italy, while spending copious hours in the Instituto Gaslini Hospital, gave me an incredible sense of what Italian culture looks like from an American perspective. Additionally, the manner in which Atlantis treats its fellows(fancy dinners out paid for by the company, paid for excursions to Portofino to swim in crystal blue waters surrounded by millionaires and yachts) was a privilege few in their life get to experience. I was given my own apartment a block from the hospital, my apartment's balcony overlooked the Ligurian Sea and somedays I would bring my suit to the hospital, put it in my locker while grabbing my hospital coat, and at the end of the day I'd simply change, walk out the front entrance of the hospital, down the steps, and jump into the ocean. The doctors I shadowed all spoke very good English, I came to learn that this was because they often times were required to learn out of English textbooks or in American institutions. The younger the doctor, the better their English, and this was a result of the changing political tide of Italy, much in the same way Generation Z and Millenials in America are somewhat more likely to have grown up learning Spanish as a second language.
