Though Italian cities preserve some of the finesse collections of antiquities in the world, buying genuine antiques in not an easy matter. Plenty of dealers are willing to sell small relics of ancient Rome or Etruscan civilization, but even if these items were genuine the strict control on exporting antiquities would make it impossible for foreign purchasers to take them out of the country. At eh same time, the kinds of handsome household items o later periods that predominate in the antiques trade of countries like England and Scotland are uncommon in Italy; poorer than other European nations, it never had a large middle class to demand luxury goods in quantity. The objects of value that do exist were almost always made for large noble families who have passed them down—or sold them at prices far beyond the means of the average buyer.
尽管意大利的城市保留着世界上一些精巧的古董，但要买到真正的古董并不是件容易的事。许多交易 商愿意出售古罗马或伊特鲁里萨文明的小遗迹，但即使这些文物是真的，对文物出口的严格控制也会使外 国买家不可能把它们带出国门。与此同时，在英格兰和苏格兰等国的古董贸易中占主导地位的那些漂亮的 家居用品在意大利并不常见。意大利比其他欧洲国家更穷，它从来没有出现一个庞大的中产阶级来造成对 大量的奢侈品的需求。高价值的物件确实存在，但几乎都是为大贵族家庭制作的，代代相传，或者以超出 普通购买者消费能力的价格高价售出。
1. 原文第一句中的非谓语从句直接用转折词与上文连接即可。
2. 原文第二句中，dealers可翻译成“小交易商”，small relics可翻译成“小遗迹”。
3. 原文第三句较长，可以分号为界，将句子分成两句来译。
4. 原文第四句中，passed down可译为“代代相传”，means在这里的意思是“财力，财产”。