- published: 16 Oct 2014
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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.
Florence Eldridge (September 5, 1901, Brooklyn, New York – August 1, 1988, Long Beach, California) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in Play in 1957 for her performance in Long Day's Journey into Night.
Born Florence McKechnie in Brooklyn, Eldridge attended public schools there.
Eldridge made her Broadway debut at age 17 as a chorus member of Rock-a-Bye Baby at the Astor Theatre.
In 1965, she and husband Fredric March did a world tour under the auspices of the U.S. State Department. Eldridge wrote that they were "experimenting to see if an acting couple doing excerpts from plays on a bare stage could reach and appeal to a worldwide audience."
Eldridge was married to March from 1927 until his death in 1975, and often appeared alongside him on stage and in films.
She died of a heart attack aged 86. She was buried alongside her husband at the March Estate in New Milford, Connecticut.
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