FINALE LIGURE | LIGURIA REGION

Finale Ligure is small commune of the Western Ligurian Riviera consists actually of 3 different centers. Finale Marina, along the sea with a fine seafront of palm trees, is the more recent tourist development; Finale Pia, higher on the coast which is the older part, Varigotti, an ancient Saracen settlement also along the sea; and Finalborgo (or Finale Borgo) the early medieval borough with the beautiful castles of Castlegovone and San Giovanni.

The territory of Finale is rich in caves, where traces of the presence of man in the Neolithic were found. The earliest historical mention of the town goes back to Roman times, when the center was called Ad Fines (=at the boundary) since it marked the border between two Ligurian tribes, the Sabatii and the Ingauni.

In 967 Holy Roman Emperor Otho I established the Aleramic Marquisate, granting the territory to his daughter and her descendants.

In 1091 the fiefdom passed to marquis Del Carretto, whose family became one of the most powerful in the Liguria region, often in competition in the following centuries with the Genoa Republic, until finally a war broke out in 1447, when Finalborgo was set on fire and the Del Carretto defeated, though later emperors Maximilian I and Charles V reconfirmed the fiefdom to the family.

In 1558 the bad government of Alfonso II Del Carretto led to the occupation by the Milan governor. In 1602 Finale passed under the Spaniards, who sold it to Genoa in 1713, Finally in 1815 it was granted by the Congress of Vienna to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

WHAT TO SEE IN FINALE LIGURIA

• A benedictine Abbey at Finale Pia, with a 13th century belltower
• The medieval borough of Finalborgo, included among the most beautiful boroughs in Italy, surrounded by 15th century walls and round towers, one of which was made into the belltower of the fine church of St Blaise.
• At Varigotti, specatacular cliffs called "rupi di Malpasso"
• 6 km north east of Finale is the Mànie plateau, with caves of special paleonthological significance, among them the Arma delle Mànie grotto, which can be visited.