Assisi attractions

Assisi's sights are the Franciscan town itself, which is how UNESCO inscribed it in 2000 — not one church but a group of linked sites under five cultural criteria.

The Basilica of San Francesco is the centre and needs planning, because it is three spaces with three timetables: the Lower Church (6:00–19:00, 18:00 on Wednesdays), the Upper Church (8:30–18:45) and the Tomb (6:00–18:15, reopening 21:00–22:00 on Fridays and Saturdays). All of it is free.

In the town, the Basilica di Santa Chiara holds Clare's tomb and the crucifix Francis is said to have prayed before; the cathedral of San Rufino is where both were baptised; the Temple of Minerva on Piazza del Comune is a Roman portico still in use; and the Rocca Maggiore above gives the view that explains the site.

Three more sit outside the walls and are what separate a full visit from a quick one: San Damiano below the town, the Eremo delle Carceri up on Monte Subasio, and the Porziuncola enclosed inside the basilica at Santa Maria degli Angeli on the plain, where the order began and Francis died.