In a similar vein, I visited pompeii a few years ago and we were shocked just how rough everything and everyone was. Scammers in the street, 'non working' credit card machines at restaurants, taxi cab meters that didn't work, whole train lines you don't go on as a tourist, and extra fees galore.
When in the ancient city we read a plaque that said something to the effect, 'Pompeii while frozen in time, had existed for a thousand years already as working class, rough, fishing and port town.'
And I was like, 'Not a damn thing has changed. We're visiting the ancient city of Baltimore here.'