Meet the founder of Take Me To Europe Tours, our local distinguished archaeologists, and expert tour leaders.
Hi there! My name is Monique Skidmore. I have a passion for ruins and beaches – and preferably ruins perched above beaches! (And I like beach bars too…)
With my partner, Stephen Parker, we divide each year between the Mediterranean, our northern English cottage, and our home in the mountains near Melbourne, Australia.
I’m a globally renowned anthropologist and Myanmar expert, and I’ve conducted deep, immersive fieldwork in several countries. I speak, read, and write four languages. For more information about my story and my career, including my books and TV appearances, see my About Monique page and my entry in Wikipedia.
Through Take Me To Europe Tours, I’ve fostered an expertise that goes beyond tourism. I love to share my experiences and the experiences of my local team that will make you fall in love with the beauty of the people, the landscape, and the food and wine of the hidden parts of Europe.
Internationally renowned Malta-based Welsh archaeologist, Dr Huw S. Groucutt, specializes in the intersection of climate change and human prehistory. He currently digs at two sites in Malta and is a lecturer in Mediterranean prehistory. Trained at Sheffield (BA Archaeology, MSc Palaeoanthropology) and Oxford (DPhil Archaeological Science), he investigates how environmental shifts influenced human evolution and cultural development.
His research uses stone tool analysis to understand human adaptations across the Mediterranean, Southwest Asia, and Northern Africa. With fieldwork experience spanning Malta, Arabia, and Senegal, Dr Groucutt explores how prehistoric communities responded to environmental challenges throughout the Quaternary period.
Dr Elena Soulioti is a specialist in Aegean Bronze Age and Minoan archaeology with a PhD from Durham University on the social role of Minoan symbols. For more than 25 years, she has combined cutting-edge research with inspiring on-site storytelling as a licensed Greek tour guide throughout mainland Greece and the islands.
Elena’s research focuses on the intersection of material culture, symbolism, and religious practice in Bronze Age Aegean societies, especially the Minoans. She has presented at international conferences in Greece and the UK on topics such as Minoan religious symbols, the “sacred knot,” and semiotic approaches to ancient imagery.
Her fieldwork includes major Minoan sites across Crete, with three seasons at the Palace of Zakros, studies at the Makrygialos Minoan Villa, and extensive work on unpublished pottery in the museums of Heraklion and Aghios Nikolaos. Beyond Crete, she has participated in projects from the Neolithic site of Dispilio in northern Greece to the Epidaurus Limera surface survey in Laconia, a direct link to the landscapes explored on Peloponnese itineraries.
Elena graduated from the National School of Tourist Guides in Athens and has worked as a licensed professional guide across Greece since the late 1990s, guiding in Greek, English, Spanish, and German. Over nearly three decades she has designed and led highly specialised tours for universities, alumni groups, schools, cultural associations, agrotourism and economic-life programs, ANZAC and modern history tours, as well as bespoke family and small-group journeys.
She has served as Vice President and Secretary of the Association of Tourist Guides in Athens, organising multi-day training seminars and educational excursions that help other guides stay current with new archaeological discoveries and interpretive approaches. Elena also collaborates with the Municipality of Athens and leading museums to offer free public guided tours of sites and collections such as the Archaeological Site of Aristotle’s Lyceum and the Museum of Cycladic Art, where her narratives make the city’s layered past accessible to a wide local and international audience.
Elena’s tours are characterised by clear, engaging narratives that connect archaeological evidence with myth, philosophy, and everyday life, always tailored for an intelligent general audience. Guests frequently comment on how she weaves complex historical and philosophical themes into vivid stories that make sites feel alive without overwhelming them with jargon.
Her passion for education extends beyond the road: she has organised interdisciplinary workshops on symbolism, contributed to conferences on cultural tourism, and even created radio-style “guided tour” broadcasts for Greek audiences. These activities reflect her belief that a guide is an “invisible ambassador” of Greece, responsible not only for accurate information but also for creating meaningful, human experiences of place.
Dottore Sedda is a specialist in the prehistory of Sardinia with an M.A. (Dottore Magistrale) in Classics and Archeology as well as a Postgraduate specialization in Archaeology, both from the University of Cagliari.
Laura has excavated at prehistoric sites across the island, including the Neolithic village of Su Coddu in Selargius (CA), and three different nuraghes: Nuraghe Su Mulinu, Villanovafranca; Nuraghe Sa Reggia, Burgos; and Nuraghe Asusa, Isili. She continues to practice archaeology and has been an accredited tour guide since 2010.
Dr Annalisa Costa is a Sicilian archaeologist and licensed regional tour guide. Born and based in Sicily, she combines advanced academic training with years of field experience.
Annalisa holds multiple degrees in archaeology from La Sapienza University in Rome and the University of Milan, where she specialised in prehistoric developments in the Ancient Near East. She went on to conduct her PhD research at the University of Trento, focusing on pottery production techniques and experimental archaeology, and has contributed to projects on firing pits, ceramic technology, and prehistoric material culture. Her academic work includes collaborations with universities, museums, and cultural institutions across Italy and Europe, reflecting a career firmly rooted in ongoing research.
In the field, Annalisa has taken part in numerous excavation campaigns in Italy and abroad, including projects in Turkey and Switzerland. She has also studied rock art engravings at Valcamonica, one of Italy’s UNESCO World Heritage sites, deepening her expertise in how ancient communities used landscape and imagery to express belief and identity.
As a guide, Annalisa leads small-group and private tours around Sicily, particularly in and around Catania and Taormina, where Greek, Roman, medieval, and modern layers of history overlap. Guests consistently praise her warmth, clarity, and ability to make complex archaeological topics accessible and memorable.
🏛️ Sicily Tour: Art, Ruins & Baroque Towns
David Pearlman is an archaeologist with over four decades of field experience across Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean, combining serious scholarship with a lifelong passion for exploring landscapes on foot. He holds a B.A. in Classics from the University of Cincinnati (1980) and an M.A. in Archaeology and Soil Science from the University of Minnesota (1984), and has been at the heart of some of Cyprus’s most important excavation and survey projects since the late 1970s.
David’s fieldwork began in 1976 on the multinational excavation of the prehistoric settlement at Kastellatio in Sicily’s Belice Valley, followed in 1977 by Brock University’s excavation of the Late Bronze Age temple site at Larnaca‑Kition in Cyprus. For nearly a decade (1978–87) he served as supervisor of the Vasilikos Valley Project, excavating Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement and cemetery sites at Kalavasos and contributing to the publication of this key aceramic Neolithic and Bronze Age landscape.
From 1980–84 he held leadership positions with the Canadian Palaipaphos Survey Project, serving as crew leader and ethnographic consultant as the team systematically mapped four western river valleys and identified more than a hundred new sites. His expertise was also sought at major archaeological sites across Cyprus, including Kissonerga‑Mosphilia, Peyia‑Maa‑Paliokastro, Pyla‑Kokkinokremmos, and Hellenistic/Roman tomb rescue excavations at Kato Paphos ahead of modern development.
After many years “in the trench,” David began applying his archaeological eye to cultural tourism. In the late 1980s, he founded EXALT (EXcursion ALTernatives), an off‑the‑beaten‑track 4×4 and trekking company based first in Paphos and then island‑wide, designing nature and heritage excursions into remote valleys, mountain villages, and coastal landscapes that mainstream tourism rarely reached.
Since 2004, he has worked as a freelance guide and excursion architect all over Cyprus, and today leads small‑group archaeological and historical journeys. A veteran of hundreds of overland excursions and trekking expeditions, and the author of several articles and documentary scripts on Cypriot archaeology, landscapes, and tourism, he describes himself as a “hunter‑gatherer of off‑the‑beaten‑track exploration experiences,” always looking for new ways to open “the right doors for sophisticated travellers to walk through.
On tour, David weaves together archaeology, geology, environment, and everyday Cypriot life, moving easily from Bronze Age tombs and Neolithic round houses to modern farming, village coffee‑house politics, and the practical realities of living on a divided island. He guides primarily in English and also speaks German and Greek, which helps him connect with both local communities and international travellers. Guests repeatedly praise his professionalism, encyclopaedic knowledge, and infectious enthusiasm.
Experienced Cypriot tour guide, Eleni Ellinas was born in Famagusta in what is now Northern Cyprus and has curated private walks of the border zone of Cyprus for several years now. Here’s Eleni’s perspective on the authenticity she brings to Take Me To Europe Tours:
“My purpose is simple yet profound: to provide you with an insider’s perspective of Cyprus. Together, we’ll embark on a journey that allows you to perceive our island in a way few get to experience. Like many avid travellers, I yearn to uncover the hidden paths, to immerse myself in the essence of the places I visit. My passion extends to engaging with locals, exploring their cuisine, traditions, culture, and history – all integral components of a truly authentic experience.”
Eleni’s community involvement includes her work with Home for Cooperation (H4C), a community center situated in the UN buffer zone, which is the dividing line between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.
If you’re lucky, Eleni will show you the apartment on Palm Beach in Varosha that her family fled during the Turkish occupation in 1974. With thousands of 5-star reviews, we feel extremely lucky to have such a warm, intelligent, and genuine human being as Eleni as our primary Cypriot tour leader.
