Your tourist guide in Dubrovnik, that’s me, Marina Missoni Barišić. I’ve been working as a local guide in Dubrovnik and the area since 2002. I’m lucky to live in the old city of Dubrovnik. Therefore, the city is my office as well. That way, I experience and see it in all its moments.
Guide, teacher, mother, housewife
Let us start from the beginning. I was born in Dubrovnik in 1979 on a warm, August afternoon. I spent a carefree childhood in my hometown. I was playing with my friends and running through the streets of the old city. We lived in a house close to the main street. While my parents were at work, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and my great aunt. They were telling me many stories about how life was when they were little girls. My great aunt taught me some Italian too. In 1991 began a more serious period. That year started the war in Croatia. My city was severly damaged. Nevertheless, we survived.
When I finished high school in 1997, I went to Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. There, I enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy to study Italian and Spanish language. I finished my studies in 2003 and, since then, I’ve been a professor of Italian and Spanish. I always thought I would work in a school.
In 2002 the situation got better. The tourists started to come back to my hometown. My first contact with tourism was when, that same year, a local agency employed me to accompany their groups. A few months later, I passed the professional exam and I became a licensed tourist guide. Now I work as a freelancer hired by agencies or individuals.
For the rest of my time, I am a happy mother of four boys. I am never bored, as you can understand. Often I run into them while I guide guests. Normally, they do not even notice me. They just continue playing with their friends.
Tourist guide, why?
I never thought I would work as a guide full time. Of course, when I had to decide what to study, the tourists were still very far from coming back to Croatia. However, when I started working as a guide, I really liked it.
Over the years, I fell in love with the profession of the tourist guide. It is a perfect combination of the two things I love most – history and foreign languages. So, the love lasts till this very day, when I have already spent two decades working as a local guide in Dubrovnik. People often ask me: “Don’t you get bored telling the same stories all the time?” No, because I tell them to different people. Besides, I tell them in different languages – English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and, of course, Croatian.
When somebody decides to visit my city, I feel proud. When the tourists feel nice in Dubrovnik, I am happy. In the end, if they come back to their countries satisfied, a wonderful memory remains.