48 hours in Plovdiv, the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe

While there are many ancient empires that have left their mark on history, in Europe, the Romans dominate the conversation.

Remnants are everywhere, from our use of the Latin alphabet and many law principles to the fact that men apparently think about the Roman Empire every single day, as revealed by a TikTok trend a few years back.

Roman buildings and archaeological sites continue to fascinate, with tourists flocking to the Colosseum in Rome, Hadrian’s Wall in the UK, and the Aqueduct of Segovia in Spain.

Yet not all of the remaining Roman wonders have made it into the mainstream, as I discovered on a recent visit to Plovdiv in Bulgaria.

The Roman theatre of Philippopolis is among the best-preserved in the world – yet I had only a few other people, and a friendly cat, for company on my visit in mid-May.