Tallahassee is the capital city of Florida, a state in the south-east of the United States. It surprises many people, because it is not one of Florida's famous cities — Miami and Orlando are far bigger and much better known. Tallahassee sits up in the north of the state, near the border with Georgia, a long way from the beaches and the theme parks people picture when they think of Florida. It was chosen as the capital in the 1820s for a simple, practical reason: at that time the two important towns were Pensacola in the west and St Augustine in the east, and Tallahassee was roughly halfway between them. It is a government town and a university town — the state government works there, and both Florida State University and Florida A&M University are there — so a large part of the people you meet are either students or working for the state. Because it is inland and in the north, it is a little cooler and hillier than the rest of Florida, with old oak trees hanging with grey moss. The word is spelled with two l's and two s's, and English speakers say it in four beats, with the strong beat on the third: ta-la-HA-ssee.