Isotta Gervasi (Born in Castiglione di Cervia on November 21, 1889 - died in Modena on June 17, 1967) was an Italian medical doctor, she was the first woman in Italy to work as a medical doctor. She worked in the Cervese area and, thanks to her determination to aid those in need, she acquired a legendary image over time, so much so that she was remembered as the "doctor of the poor" and the "angel on a bicycle".[1] Grazia Deledda, a close friend of Isotta who was spending her holidays in Cervia, dedicated an elzeviro, an article in the third page of a newspaper, to her in Corriere della Sera in August 1935:
"The doctor is beautiful, elegant, in the evening she transforms like the fairy Melusina, with her clothes and her dazzling jewels and her eyes and teeth even more dazzling: a fairy is also so in front of the sick bed, whether a prince or a worker, to whom, in addition to her skilful care, she generously gives bottles of ancient wine, chickens and flowers. Her name is Isotta."[1]