Hollister native has made her home in Florence, Italy
Former Hollister resident Christina Mifsud is now one of only
five Americans to have a much-coveted tourism license for the city
of Florence in Italy.
Hollister native has made her home in Florence, Italy
Former Hollister resident Christina Mifsud is now one of only five Americans to have a much-coveted tourism license for the city of Florence in Italy.
Florence has been described as one of the most culturally significant historical cities in the entire world, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
The exam to become a licensed tour director in Florence is only offered every five years and they only accept 30 people per year into the program. Mifsud has longed for years to enter the program.
She has been a resident of Florence for nearly a dozen years, but in 1996 did not have the correct resident papers to apply, and in 2001 she qualified to take the course, but was not in the top 30.
Mifsud passed the exam last month, 11 years after she first considered the job. She was 32 on the list, but when two people dropped out of the program she was accepted.
During the course of the year Mifsud had to attend 800 hours of class, juggling work, family and raising her two-year-old son. She was required to write two thesis papers, as well as take oral and written final exams but she was successful in her endeavour.
“This course, these exams, all in Italian and in front of a board of professors and experts in the field in Florence, were more gruelling than my [Santa Clara University] diploma and masters’ degree put together,” Mifsud said.
Mifsud was born in San Francisco but grew up in Hollister. Her parents Pauline Dabo Mifsud and Bill Mifsud as well as her grandmother Catherine Dabo still reside in Hollister along with Mifsud’s brother, Bill Mifsud Jr.
Mifsud has long been interested in Italian culture. She received her master’s in Italian Renaissance Art History from Syracuse University in 1995.
It was during a study abroad semester in Rome that Mifsud knew she wanted to make her future in Europe.
After attending Syracuse University, she studied and worked in Marseille, France and re-located to Florence where she has been since 1995.
With her master’s degree and the research she was doing in Florence, Mifsud started to teach the history of Renaissance Art in Florence for U. S. university programs. There are more than 30 exchange programs in Florence.
It was just after one year in Florence that Mifsud was contacted by Senator Edward Kennedy to arrange a tour for him and his wife during his official return to Florence.
Kennedy originally visited the city in 1966, as an ambassador of good will after the city was flooded.
“The 30th anniversary tour was a great honor,” Mifsud said. “As I accompanied Sen. Kennedy and his wife all over the city with their official entourage of secret service, reporters and paparazzi.”
In November 2006, the 40th anniversary of the flood, Sen. Kennedy wanted to return to Florence and contacted Mifsud directly from Washington to arrange another tour. This time the tour was for himself, his wife and four close friends on the senator’s only free day of a four-day trip.
Since that time Mifsud has had the privilege of giving the senator’s son, Edward (Teddy) Kennedy, Jr., and family as well as the Senator’s niece former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Kathleen Kennedy and her family tours as well.
Mifsud is married to Florence native Luciano Camilli and the couple have a two-year-old son, Lorenzo.
