The Civic Museum of Finale occupies the former convent of Santa Caterina in Finalborgo, a beautiful 14th-century cloister that provides an atmospheric setting for one of the most important prehistoric collections in Italy. The museum is built around finds from the cave sites in the limestone cliffs above Finale — above all Arene Candide, but also Caverna delle Fate and other sites — which together document human occupation of this area from the Lower Paleolithic to the Bronze Age.
The centrepiece is the material from Arene Candide: tools, ornaments, and human skeletal remains from burials stretching back 23,000 years. The display of "Il Principe" — a teenage boy buried with exceptional ceremony around 23,000 BCE — is the highlight and is sensitively presented with detailed explanation of what the burial tells us about Paleolithic society. The museum also covers Roman and medieval history of the Marquisate of Finale. Allow at least 90 minutes.