TAMPA<br > A N D W E S T C E N T R A L F L O R I D A<br > ，，，， - attend professional football， baseball. 29 television markets in the nation， Florida， with rolhng hills and grazing<br >Tampa is an old soul with a fresh face. hockey and soccer games， and dine on Tampa boasts the 11 th largest U.S~ port cows and horses.<br > 1 /，， ~l~，nJmv of its past lives in the red gourmet specialties from Asian to Cajun in terms of annual cargo tonnage. The ~:~j~<br >I~，J， I， : .!rf，crs uf Ybor City， the historic to Spanish cuisine ，. Tampa is the birth- county seat of Hillsborough County， Tampa has a temt crate. : H~i-t~<br >h ~: ， ，，! l lydc Park， the silver minarets place of country music performer Slim Tampa is home to the University of climate with an 1， ~ a~r<br >~ g-，.， ; ，m~ I L~ul， Hall. The spirit of its Whitman， iazz musician David Sanborn Sooth Florida， the second largest public ature of 62.5 Ic<J e，，s d<br >I，.~， . ;， ，m，. ， m the city s downtown sky- and baseball legend AI Lopez. Home to university system in the state and the summer lemp~<br >I~， ~，m，，，ecouing business centers， its more than 280，000 residents known as 18th largest in the nation. In 1994， 12 For an，dicta， m，<br >~ ，，. :， ，mm:d ~uburban communities. Tampans - including tennis great Pete million passengers flew in and out or mean， ~，，.Jr-><br > ~ ， ， % ;~ Native American phrase Sampras， NFL Hall-of-Famer Lee Roy Tampa International Airport， which is water tJ*tm，v ，，.<br >E~ ~..， ，. >，[Icl<s of fire，" Tampa has been Selmon and retired U.S. Army General rated the No. 1 airport for convenience from ，)wrl.，<br >，~: ，~:~ " lhf. Cigar Capital of the World，" H. Norman Schwartzkopf - Tampa by the Airline Passengers Association. Itill~/)om，~i~，<br >I，，J，~， ;I J:， "Am[:riea s Next Great City，" attracted an estimated 9.59 million Tampa is set on Florida s west coast and f(J~orit( [，，r<br >~ rod Idcknalned "The Big Guava." At visitors in 1995. "If you want to rind is surroumJed by famous neighbors. The ueJ~h[>rll，，，，，~.<br >，mc~， ~ osmopolitan and casual， you can Tampa，" Henry B. Plant advised fellow beaches of Clearwater and St. Peters- its m~u~l ， ，，，<br >get sand in your shoos in Tampa. or railroad magnate Henry Flagler in i891， burg are a short drive from town. Plant nor[h~ r~ p ~，，<br >shop h;r a new pair in upscale malls. "Just fnilow the crowd." City. alias "The Winter Strawberry Capi- card of tt h~t ，~<br >You can watch ~.;uban hnmigrants hand- ~~ tal of the World，" and Tarpon Springs. Florida. lb~vcrim_ ~ak，~ ，p~ ~<br >roll ~;igars， visit a zoological park that It s no worn]or the city is invaded each known as "The Sponge Capital of Amer- }sh moss merge mtu canop~- -<br >doubles as a manatee hospital and stroll yea[ by a band of bawdy pirates during ica." are nearby. Orlando is about an tbe river. Whi[e-tail~ d deer drink l r，~m<br >the world s longest continuous bayshore tbe Gasparilla Festival. Pampa truly is u hour away. If you head north， toward where the river divides rote narrow.<br >sidewalk. You can see a Broadway show， treasure town. Fifteenth among the top Brooksvillo， yna ll find another side of rock-bottomed streams. ，S~， ，~tcnmg<br >