- published: 19 Feb 2015
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Florence (/ˈflɒrəns/ FLOR-əns; Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse]) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 382,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1,520,000 in the metropolitan area.
Florence is famous for its history: a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, it is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy.
The Historic Centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 89th most visited in 2012, with 1.8 million visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture and monuments. The city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florence's artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Tyler Florence (born Kevin Tyler Florence on March 3, 1971) is a chef and television host of several Food Network shows. He graduated from the College of Culinary Arts at the Charleston, South Carolina, campus of Johnson & Wales University in 1991. He was later given an honorary doctorate from the university for his culinary success.
Florence was a presenter on Globe Trekker, hosted Food 911 and How to Boil Water, and currently hosts Tyler's Ultimate and The Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network. He was featured on the ABC TV show Shaq's Big Challenge, which aired on July 17, 2007 and Momma's Boys, a reality show produced by Ryan Seacrest. He has also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in a nationwide Sandwich Showdown. He has appeared a number of times on The Today Show, and was featured on The View in 2008. Florence serves on the board of the national nonprofit Afterschool Alliance, an organization that works to promote and to support quality after-school programs. In 2007, Florence and fellow chef Joey Altman co-hosted a celebrity chef cook-off to benefit Afterschool Alliance. In 2008, Florence was named the Dean of Culinary Education at Copia, a museum in Napa, California.