After a year marked by personal loss, travel advisor Misti Garcia packed her bags and let Florence, Italy do what only the world's most storied cities can: remind her how to live.
At a Glance
Travel can serve as a healing tool after loss, offering space for reflection and renewal. Florence provides a contemplative setting where visitors can process grief through art, culture, and immersion in beauty, allowing emotional recovery through intentional exploration and presence.
There are trips we plan, and then there are trips we need. For Misti Garcia, a travel advisor who has built her reputation on crafting custom itineraries for discerning clients, a week in Florence, Italy was unmistakably the latter. Following the death of her husband earlier that year, Garcia did what she advises her clients to do when words fail: she listened to what her gut was telling her. "My heart was calling, my soul just wanted to live more, experience more, love more," she says. Florence, a city she had glimpsed briefly from cruise ship ports in years past, became the answer.
