Greetings

I’m Mollie Henderson, luxury travel advisor and founder of Exquisite Departures.

I want to tell you about a horse race. 

Many years ago, on vacation in Tuscany with my family, I witnessed the Palio di Siena, a horse race unlike anything I have ever seen. Have you heard of the Palio? I doubt I would have if I had not seen it with my own eyes. It was pure luck that my mother had been reading a novel that was set against the backdrop of this race and decided to add it as a stop on our vacation in Italy.

The atmosphere that day was electric. Imagine the crowd energy and pageantry of the Super Bowl and the World Cup combined as spectators cheered on the horse that represented the pride of their neighborhood, all packed into a small town square in the middle of the Italian countryside. It was pure madness and I loved every minute.

Our family still talks about the Palio to this day. Not only is it an incredible memory we share, but also one we would never have experienced had my mother not known to look for it. 

There are so many hidden gems like the Palio to discover, and unexpected moments of your own to find. But travel planning can be overwhelming, and there is a huge amount of information to sift through. The internet has given us an abundance of sites to scour, pictures to peruse, and reviews to read. It’s hard to know where to get reliable information. And I’ll let you in on a secret —  there are tons of amazing experiences that are not even listed on those online sites, and many that are only available to people who utilize a travel advisor.

Let Exquisite Departures take away the stress of travel planning and deliver an incredible vacation that you too will be talking about for years to come. 

Are you ready to find your Palio?