Cities that have tasted greatness in their past lives face a dilemma: whether to continue to bask in the shadow of faded glories, or to attempt to modernise, thus losing the distinctiveness of what made them great in the first place.

Trouble is, that decision is not always theirs to make. Travellers do not come to the great centres of antiquity to see whether their plumbing is up to 21st-century standards. They want the past – and tourist-hungry cities are happy to serve it to them, more often than not in great dollops of kitsch.