Tampa (Tampa) is located in the west central part of the peninsula of Florida (Florida). The town lies on the bank of a natural bay that bears the name of Tampa Bay (Tampa Bay) and extending approximately 55 km inland of the peninsula of Florida. For most of its length the bay has a width of 8 to 16 km.

 

Region located in the Tampa Bay area of ​​the Gulf, is called Tampa Bay Area. The composition of the urban agglomeration of Tampa Bay Area consists of three main cities: Tampa, Clearwater (Clearwater), St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg), as well as several dozen towns with a population of between 10 and 100 thousand inhabitants. In total, the urban agglomeration of Tampa Clearwater St. Petersburg is home to about 4 million people. Directly in the city of Tampa in 2013 lived 352 thousand inhabitants.

 

The most widely known and anticipated public event in Tampa is an annual celebration of Gasparilla and, in particular, the conduct of "Gasparilla Pirate Festival» (Gasparilla Pirate Festival). According to legend, a Spanish pirate Jose Gaspar known as "Gasparilla", made their raids off the coast of West Florida in the late 18th - early 19th century. Celebrating beats invading pirate ship Gaspar followed by a parade on the main streets. On average festival held in late January and consists of several events, it attracts the attention of about 400 thousand people.

 

In Tampa 6 basic areas: downtown (Downtown Tampa), North (North Tampa), West (West Tampa), East (East Tampa), South (South Tampa) and New Tampa (New Tampa), a part of which the tanned 80 smaller areas.

 

Today, the historic heritage of the city growth of the boom can be felt in the oldest area of ​​the city - Ybor City (Ybor City), located to the north-east of downtown Tampa. Ybor City has emerged as the Latin American region, where cigar production had been concentrated. Having reached its dawn to the beginning of the Great Depression (in 1929, 500 million cigars were stranded on the Ybor City factories), the area has experienced a decade of neglect and decay, and only partially reversed in the last decade.