Florence

(flôrˈəns, flŏrˈ-)

1. also Fi·ren·ze (fē-rĕnˈdzĕ) A city of central Italy on the Arno River east of Pisa. Originally an Etruscan settlement, then a Roman town, Florence was a powerful city-state under the Medici family during the Italian Renaissance, with a brilliant artistic flowering led by Giotto, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dante, and Raphael. Florence was the capital of newly unified Italy from 1865 to 1871, when the government was moved to Rome. Population: 366,000.
2. A city of northwest Alabama on the Tennessee River west-northwest of Decatur. Founded in 1818, it is highly industrialized. Population: 36,700.
3. An unincorporated community of southern California, a residential and manufacturing suburb of Los Angeles. Population: 60,100.