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Perhaps slightly off-topic, I'm going to risk this text for a Crossroads test blog.

Why do Italians say Firenze and most others Florence?

In an old text on Florence's history it says (in Italian ... a translation in English follows): Primi insediamenti accertati nella pianura <florentina> sono tracce di un popolo (forse i liguri) che aveva importanti rapporti commerciali con la Grecia e la Sardegna. In plain English: Traces have been found that, round 2000 B.C., the plain of <Florentina> was inhabited by a population being in close commercial relationship with both Greece and Sardinia.

A friend of mine (he's not Italian) thinks that Florentina has finally become Firenze just because this fits the phonetics from early Latin flor <> later Italian fiore = (both meaning flower). Fior(entia), then, by phonetic reduction for the ending sounds [-tsia] > [-sja] > [-za] > [-ze] became Fiorenze ...

But the other step? How can be explained the last change from [jo] to [i] in F[jo]renze ??