Arene Candide is a large limestone cave on the cliffs above Finale Ligure, one of the most significant prehistoric sites in Europe. Occupied by humans on and off for at least 14,000 years, the cave yielded hundreds of burials and tens of thousands of artefacts that document the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to the first Ligurian farmers.
The cave is not generally open to individual visitors — access is restricted to archaeologists and organised groups — but the finds from its excavations fill the Civic Museum of Finale in the Santa Caterina convent in Finalborgo, which is the place to see and understand the extraordinary depth of human history in this corner of the Riviera. The museum's Paleolithic rooms, with their reconstructed burials and explanatory displays, are among the most compelling prehistoric collections in Italy.