Practical information for visiting Assisi

Italy's four national operators (TIM, Vodafone, WindTre and Iliad) cover Assisi and the Umbrian plain adequately. Visitors from elsewhere in the EU can use their home data allowance under EU roaming rules; visitors from outside the EU usually find a local prepaid SIM cheaper than roaming, and there are operator shops down on the plain at Santa Maria degli Angeli rather than in the historic centre.

Two constraints are specific to Assisi. The Basilica is thick medieval masonry built into a hillside, and signal inside — particularly in the Lower Church and the crypt — drops to nothing. That is appropriate to the place and worth treating as a feature rather than a problem, but it means anything you need at the door should be loaded before you reach it. And coverage on Monte Subasio above the town is patchy once the path enters the woods, which matters for the walk up to the Eremo delle Carceri: download the route before setting off rather than relying on a live map on a mountain.

Public wi-fi is available in parts of the town, and most hotels, religious guesthouses and cafes provide their own. The Sacro Convento publishes its own hours, mass times and news, including a live web feed from the tomb, which is the authoritative place to check before a visit.

Assisi is extremely safe. The risks here are almost entirely physical and seasonal rather than criminal, and the one rule that matters most is about conduct rather than safety.

• Cover shoulders and knees, and keep silent inside. The dress code is enforced at the Basilica, Santa Chiara and San Rufino, and visitors are turned away for it. Silence in the basilica is expected rather than requested — this is a working friary with a tomb that has people praying at it from 6:00 in the morning.
• The streets are the real hazard. Assisi is stone, steep and stepped, polished by eight centuries of feet and genuinely slippery in rain or morning mist. Falls are the most likely way a visitor gets hurt. Footwear with grip matters more here than anywhere else in Umbria.
• Pickpocketing is minor but concentrates where any crowd does: the approach to the Basilica of San Francesco, the piazza outside it, and the coach drop-off points when the day-trip flow arrives mid-morning.
• The walk to the Eremo delle Carceri is a mountain path. It climbs through the woods of Monte Subasio for about an hour, mobile coverage is patchy once among the trees, and it should be treated as a hill walk: water, grip, and a route downloaded in advance.
• Summer heat on open stone in the upper town is harder work than the temperature suggests, because there is little shade above Piazza del Comune.
• Do not drive into the centre. It is steep, restricted and pointless; the car parks below the walls connect by escalator.

For anything urgent, 112.

Assisi is a small town, and the significant hospitals are in Perugia about twenty kilometres away. Visitors from the EU carrying a valid EHIC or GHIC card can use public healthcare on the same terms as Italian residents; visitors from elsewhere should carry travel health insurance, because treatment is billed directly.

Pharmacies are present in the town and more plentiful down on the plain at Santa Maria degli Angeli, with duty rotas for nights and holidays posted on the doors of those closed. For anything urgent, 112 reaches medical services.

Three points specific to Assisi.

• The gradient is the main consideration and it is unavoidable. The town is built in terraces on a mountain flank at 424 metres, and moving between its three principal churches means climbing. Anyone with a heart condition, a mobility limitation or a knee problem should plan a day here by the ascent rather than the distances, and use the escalators from the lower car parks on the way in. The Basilica itself spans two levels connected by stairs.
• The surfaces. Polished stone on a slope, wet with rain or the morning mist that pools on this hillside through the colder months, is a genuine slip risk rather than a theoretical one.
• The walk to the Eremo delle Carceri is a mountain ascent of about an hour through the woods of Monte Subasio, frequently undertaken casually by people who came for a church. It is exposed to heat in summer and needs water, proper footwear and a downloaded route, because signal under the trees is unreliable.

Emergency number: 112, free from any phone. It is Italy's single emergency number — medical emergencies, the Carabinieri and emergencies generally — and it routes the call to the right service.

Police: 113. Fire brigade: 115. Financial Guard (Guardia di Finanza): 117.

Mountain rescue matters here more than in most Italian towns, because the path from the top of the town to the Eremo delle Carceri is a genuine mountain route on Monte Subasio where coverage is patchy. 112 coordinates it.

The Basilica of San Francesco — hours, mass times, reservations, accessibility, and anything concerning the Sacro Convento, its library and archive or the Museo del Tesoro — is administered by the friars of the Sacro Convento, who publish their own timetable and a live feed from the tomb. That is the authoritative source rather than any third party, and the one to check before travelling, because the three parts of the basilica keep three different sets of hours.

Hospitals are in Perugia, about twenty kilometres away; Assisi itself has pharmacies in the historic centre and more on the plain at Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Note that Santa Maria degli Angeli, where the railway station is, is four kilometres from the hill town and part of the same comune — worth knowing when giving an address or calling for help.