Assisi Events

The two dates the town belongs to itself

Assisi receives visitors every day of the year, but two occasions are the town's own rather than the pilgrims'.

Calendimaggio, in May, is a medieval spring festival contested between the Parte de Sopra and the Parte de Sotto — the upper and lower halves of Assisi — with processions, music and competition in period costume over several days. It is genuinely local and the town takes the rivalry seriously.

The Feast of Saint Francis on 4 October is the largest day of the Assisi year and a national occasion: Francis has been a patron saint of Italy since 1939, and the feast draws pilgrims, dignitaries and broadcast coverage. If you are not coming for it, the surrounding days are when the town is fullest and most expensive.

The basilica's own rhythm, which runs all year

Outside those dates the thing that shapes a visit is the Sacro Convento's daily timetable, because this is a working friary rather than a monument. Mass is said several times a day — the published times include 7:30, 9:00, 17:00 and 18:30, and 7:15, 10:00, 11:00 and 18:00 — and visiting arranges itself around worship rather than the other way round.

The hours worth planning around are the three different ones: the Lower Church from 6:00 to 19:00 (18:00 on Wednesdays), the Upper Church from 8:30 to 18:45, and the Tomb from 6:00 to 18:15. The best of them is the one almost nobody uses: on Fridays and Saturdays the Tomb reopens from 21:00 to 22:00 for personal prayer.

Easter and the pilgrim calendar

Holy Week fills Assisi, as do the major Franciscan feast days through the year. These are reasons to come or reasons to avoid, depending entirely on what you want from the place — but they are not quiet times, and accommodation goes early.