Tallahassee: the capital among Florida's hills

Capital of Florida among gentle hills in the north, Tallahassee preserves an unusually hilly and wooded landscape for the entire state.

The city center is visited comfortably on foot.

The Florida State Capitol, with its modern tower alongside the nineteenth-century historic building, dominates the skyline of the state capital.

A few minutes away, the Canopy Roads, historic avenues shaded by centuries-old oak trees covered in Spanish moss, remain a distinctive and unusual feature of the city's urban landscape.

Heading toward the university campus, you visit Mission San Luis, a reconstruction of a seventeenth-century Spanish and Apalachee settlement with traditional huts and a wooden church.

In the evening, Gaines Street district comes alive with restaurants and bars frequented by students from the city's two universities.

Tallahassee was chosen as the capital of Florida in 1824 for its location midway between the then-major cities of Pensacola and Saint Augustine, both too distant to effectively govern the territory.

The Canopy Roads, some dating back to 19th-century plantations, remain protected by local ordinance that forbids their cutting, preserving a rare and shaded landscape virtually unique elsewhere in Florida.