IOANNIS AGAPAKIS – GENERAL MANAGER, IKAROS TRAVEL
Miss Ioanna Glypti has worked for our company as a licensed tour guide for English language groups for the past six years.
Miss Glypti has always shown a very responsible attitude to her duties. Her timekeeping is excellent and she has proved very trustworthy.
She is an outstanding guide with exceptionally good knowledge of her subject and is very popular with the guests of the companies we represent. I would recommend her without hesitation for a similar position elsewhere.
DR ANTONIS VASILAKIS – ARCHEOLOGIST
With the present letter I verify that Ms. Ioanna Kalypso Glypti, English language guide, attended with particular diligence, the course in prehistoric and Minoan Archeology that i taught during the academic year 1989-1990 at the EOT Local Guide College in Rethymno.
As a professional guide, she continues to seek information, always with great interest, about the most recent findings and the deduction of Greek archaeology, particularly those of Crete, where she practices the profession with great success.
CLEMENS SCHMIDLIN – ARCHEOLOGIST
On Saturday, July 14th I had the great pleasure to take part in a guided tour of Ioanna Kalypso Glypti to Phaistos, Matala, Spili.
As an Archeologist, I was delighted to see that Mrs. Glypti did not paint the usual stereotyped image of “the ancients believed” and “the archaeologists say” but instead – without provoking boredom in any moment – confronted the audience with her highly differentiated and reasonable sceptic view on our archaeological knowledge. I would like to point out that a presentation like she is able to provide for tourist is only possible after long sincere and intelligent studies.
With my kind Regards
Clemens Schmidlin
MIRON VAROUHAKIS – ASSOCIATED PRESS
It is my pleasure to recommend Ioanna Kalypso Glypti to you. I have the highest regard for Ioanna’s intellect and work ethic. She is a person possessing a vast archaeological, artistic and historical knowledge about Greece and the surrounding countries, and a character that is highly personable.
I first met Ioanna a year ago during a tour at archaeological sites on Crete. My work as a journalist for an international news agency has taken me to several countries but this was the first time that I came across someone who not only possessed so much in-depth knowledge but also a unique way of conveying vast amounts of historical information on a personal level that made it more appealing and easy to understand. That, combined with a strong work ethic and a character that is peoples friendly, allows her to stand out in her profession.
Later I found out that she was also teaching part-time at the university in Rethymno, which instantly became clear to me that she was more of a scholar experimenting on a different field that just an ordinary tour guide.
I would highly recommend Ioanna
MARY JONES – PHILADELPHIA
Oh, Ioanna! I am so glad to find you finally here! I’d lost the card you gave us so couldn’t write feedback about an amazing Knossos tour we had done with you!
After the cruise we had last year think to visit Greece again for long stay. And these thoughts bring us back to you and the impression we had from the tour by you.
After a crowd loud disembarkation in Heraklion, we suddenly found ourselves in guided calmness of your bus. And that was a great start! History, myths, modern social life were so miraculously and logically certain so we couldn’t imagine it that much related. Your care and friendliness, breadth of mind and desire to share fascinated us!
Thank you, Ioanna! And will see you again this year!
KOSTAS DIMAKIS – VIDEO DIRECTOR-EDITOR
The most amazing historical visualization
I’m a video director-editor and I was very lucky to cooperate with Ioanna Kalypso Glypti for a documentary about Crete which is in progress. It’s amazing how Ioanna can incorporate so much information in a small amount of time transmitting impressive visualizations alongside, making the audience senses the whole story. It was a very constructive experience for me! Thank you, Ioanna!!!
The Palace at Knossos Aug 2019
The Palace at Knossos (Crete) is the second-most visited archaeological site in Greece – after the justifiably favourite of the Acropolis in Athens. It is also the most restored (and so visually accessible) of all the Cretan Bronze-Age Palaces (courtesy of Evans’ personal largesse) – which divided opinion at the time he was working and does so still today. The Palace is large, complex and full of unusual details giving rise to quirky facts and figures (thus, the pithoi in the West Magazines – if filled only with cereals [which they were not], could have fed a thousand Scotsmen with porridge for a year!). No uncertainties, however, attach to the sheer numbers that pass through the gates in the High Season – 5-6000 is an average day’s total.
This figure, and the inevitable pressures it places on the ability of a visitor to appreciate and remotely come to grips with the site can make it hard to achieve a balanced appreciation of the place. Which is a shame if you have crossed half the globe to get there. A lot can be achieved with a good book in your hand. Even more can be accomplished with a well-informed and lucid guide, taking you by the hand. Guides can answer questions that may not be touched upon in a book, especially on matters of the less tangible sort – society, religion and so forth. (All are topics prone to misjudgement and fantasy by all of us – specialist or layman alike.) A lively give and take are always possible with a living and responsive person.
Which brings me to the point of this piece. Ioanna Glypti, whose praises have already been sung by many .. with good reason. Having close contacts with the professional archaeological world, and native curiosity about matters social and psychological, as well as physical, she has worked hard to acquire more than just the essential facts and strives in the off-season to update and refresh her information base. Obviously, like every guide, she will have her preferences and stronger suits – but efforts on your part to observe, question and think about another culture buried in the past will evoke in her a comparable response to discuss, guide and encourage thought – even if no firm conclusion maybe ever forthcoming. No guide likes simply to regurgitate the same tired litany, any more than a thoughtful visitor wishes to listen to a bored and discouraged professional.
Give your curiosity and intelligence a chance of exercise .. give Ioanna Glypti a call!
