The secrets of Italy’s saintliest tourist town

‘The journey is essential to the dream,” said St Francis. And, without wishing to seem flippant, the journey from London to Assisi is indeed something of a dream. After landing at Perugia airport, it is only a 15-minute drive to one of the most beautiful hilltop towns in Italy.

Then, as you approach across the plain, you see the dream made concrete. The great Basilica of St Francis seems to shore up the town itself. Huge stone arcades and buttresses level off the lower slopes of the hill to create a vast platform for the two-storey medieval church, which was raised to celebrate this most popular of saints.

The burial place of St Francis has been the focus of pilgrimage for nearly 800 years. Since he died in 1226, the saint’s dream – of gentleness, humility and poverty – has drawn more than 100 million visitors, both the devoted and the curious, to his hometown in Umbria. 

What’s more, numbers are growing at a staggering rate. More than five million people now come each year to this ancient town in one of the prettiest corners of the region. And for me, it is an especially fascinating place, partly because it somehow seems to remain true to itself. In fact, in its way, Assisi could be seen as a model for how to cope successfully with mass tourism.

Yet quite what is the secret of this success, I’m not sure. Perhaps the sheer size of the main pilgrimage churches is enough to absorb the pressure. Certainly, despite these vast numbers, Assisi’s ancient streets, which date back to Roman times and before, never seem overwhelmed. I have visited in the depths of winter, when it still has the feel of a local town, but also in high summer. It definitely gets busy, but you can easily seek solace in its churches, Roman sites and the ruined stone fort on the very top of the hill, all of which remain relatively quiet. And, once the day-trippers have receded, peace is restored for the evenings.

People come to Assisi for many reasons. As religious pilgrims, as tourists, perhaps to explore the remarkable Roman ruins. Many – like me – are also art lovers. St Francis himself understood the power of visual imagery to inspire and communicate his message. In fact, at the most basic level, it was he who conceived of recreating the nativity scene, which still appeals to so many at Christmas.

Ultimately, it is a strange tension that a saint who preached humility and poverty should be celebrated with such splendour. But art and architecture give tourists and pilgrims alike something to focus on. That the Franciscans, the religious order he created, were such prolific patrons of art is surely one of the reasons that the movement flourished so spectacularly and so quickly.

A major exhibition at the National Gallery in London celebrating this long artistic tradition opens from May 6. It will surely inspire more visits to Assisi. But I think, thankfully, it is a town that has learnt how to cope.

The sights of St Francis

The Church of Rivorto

On the plain below Assisi, this cavernous church was built in homage to, and actually to enclose, the “hovel” which St Francis and his first followers first began their mission in 1210-11. In a dramatic architectural gesture, two of the supporting columns of the nave arcade emerge from the stone roof of the two-room shelter, the very place where the Franciscan cult began.

The Porziuncolae

As Francis’ following grew, he was offered a small chapel - the Porziuncola - a mile down the road on some land owned by the local Benedictine monks. Now it has become another church within a church, enclosed by the enormous Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli. This was built much later, between 1569-1679, though the main facade was replaced in the 1920s. The Porziuncola is covered with frescos both inside and out, including an altarpiece dating from 1393. From here St Francis sent out his first missionaries and here too, in 1226, he died. A chapel in the south transept commemorates the spot.

Santa Chiara

Dating from about 1100, this church in the upper part of the town is one of the oldest in Assisi. It was where St Francis went to school and – before the basilica was built – it was his first burial place. It is now known principally as the spiritual home of the Poor Clares - the order founded by Francis’s friend and convert, Chiara, a noblewoman who was accepted into his inner circle. Chiara died in 1253 and is buried in the crypt. In a side chapel hangs the 'speaking crucifix' from the nearby church of San Damiano which first inspired St Francis’ mission. 

The Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

This is the heart of the Franciscan order, built on the slope below Assisi. The first basilica was consecrated in 1253 and has been expanded into a vast buttressed church built on two levels. There are artistic and architectural jewels at every turn. The upper basilica, for example, was the first significant gothic building south of the alps. Some 10,000 m2 of frescoes cover the walls. Those in the lower church amount to one of the greatest collections of early Italian paintings – the precursors of the Renaissance. 

There are key works by Simeone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers from Siena, and – from Florence – Cimabue and Giotto, who also decorated the upper church. Giotto’s scenes from the Life of St Francis in the nave constitute an epic visual biography of a saint and were hugely influential on later artists, though controversy remains as to how much was painted by Giotto himself. St Francis himself is buried in the crypt.

La Verna

More than 4,000ft up in the remote wooded Apennine mountains, 70 miles north of Assisi, La Verna is now a Franciscan sanctuary. It was built on the site where St Francis retreated to meditate and received the stigmata, and it preserves the little cave where he slept. After Francis’s death, the friars established a small hostelry which could welcome pilgrims. 

In the early 14th century, the chapel was painted with frescoes by Giotto, but they did not survive the mountain climate. More than a hundred years later, the spectacular glazed terracotta altarpieces by Andrea della Robbia proved a far better solution. The largest - made in 700 separate pieces - adorns the chapel of the stigmata built in 1264. 

Saint Francis of Assisi runs from May 6-July 30 at the National Gallery in London. Admission is free.

Ryanair flies from Stansted to Perugia, less than 10 miles from Assisi. Discover where to stay with our hotel guide.