Troy (Truva)

Troy is a pleasant surprise. For many years I avoided visiting it, fearing it would be a dusty site with nothing but foundations half-ruined by Schliemann’s impatient excavations. I was particularly put off by the wooden horse, so obviously dating from the 1980s and not from Odysseus’s time.

But walk around those ancient walls on a sunny spring day and you may well feel the magic of its history. There are quite substantial walls dating back to 1,500 BC, and instructive plaques that set out clearly the history of its many layers. Even the wooden horse isn’t so bad: kids will love it.