Having established the monumental city, this second part turns to what keeps it alive. The camera follows the stepped streets and steep alleys of the older quarters, the markets and their produce brought down from the highlands, the workshops where gilding, carving, weaving and restoration are still practised, and the processions and feast days that periodically take over the historic centre. It also addresses the questions that face every inhabited World Heritage site: how to maintain colonial fabric on unstable ground, how to keep residents in a centre under tourist pressure, how to reconcile conservation with ordinary urban life. The episode balances observational filming with clear architectural reading, and offers broadcasters a strong companion piece to part one, delivering the human dimension of a city that too many programmes reduce to its churches.
