Assisi & Umbria, Italy

Assisi & Umbria travel guide, in your ear

Assisi and Umbria: the Basilica of St Francis, St Clare, the main square and San Rufino, the Rocca, San Damiano, the Eremo delle Carceri and Santa Maria degli Angeli, then Perugia and its gallery, Spello and Spoleto.

  • 13 narrated stops
  • ~39 minutes of stories
  • 6 languages
  • Offline ready

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

What is the Gingerguide Assisi & Umbria tour?

Assisi & Umbria has 13 narrated sights on Gingerguide's self-guided audio walking tour. Plan about a full day to walk them all. The app is free to download, every city has a free preview, and the tour works offline in six languages.

It is a self-guided audio walking tour of Assisi & Umbria, Italy, inside the Gingerguide travel guide app. The tour maps 13 sights and tells the story of each one in a two to three minute narration with a lifelike AI voice. When the story is not enough, ask the built-in AI guide about the place and keep the conversation going. Everything is available in six languages and works fully offline after a one-time download.

Which audio guide app is best for Assisi & Umbria?

It depends on the trip. For Assisi & Umbria, Gingerguide gives you all 13 sights on one offline map, narrated in six languages, with an AI guide to ask. Other apps are better for a single human-narrated walk, for museum guides, or for driving. We compared the main options honestly, with sources.

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The city

About Assisi & Umbria

Welcome to Assisi and Umbria, the green heart of Italy. Umbria is the only region of Italy with neither a coast nor a border with another country: a land of hills, olive groves, oak woods and small towns of stone. On the slope of Monte Subasio, looking over a wide valley, stands Assisi, the town of Saint Francis.

Assisi began as a Roman town, and its main square still lies on the Roman forum. But it is famous above all for two people born here: Francis, around 1181, and Clare, about twelve years later. Francis, the son of a rich merchant, gave up his wealth to live in poverty and serve the poor, and founded the Franciscan order. Clare followed him and founded an order for women. Francis died in 1226, and two years later the building of his great basilica began.

For eight centuries pilgrims have come here from all over the world. Since 2000, the Basilica of Saint Francis and other Franciscan places of Assisi have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1997 a strong earthquake struck the region and damaged the basilica, and four people died there; after careful restoration it reopened two years later. In 2026 the town marks eight hundred years since the death of Francis.

Around Assisi, Umbria offers much more. Perugia, the capital, is an old Etruscan hill city with a famous fountain and a great art gallery. Spello is a small town of flowers and Roman gates. Spoleto has a fine cathedral and a tall bridge across a gorge. The food is simple and good: olive oil, black truffles, lentils, cured meats and the wines of the hills.

On this tour, you will visit the Upper and Lower Churches of Saint Francis, the Basilica of Saint Clare, the main square and its Roman temple, the cathedral of San Rufino and the Rocca Maggiore. Outside the walls, you will see San Damiano, the Eremo delle Carceri and Santa Maria degli Angeli. Then you will go on to Perugia, its gallery, Spello and Spoleto.

Assisi is steep, so wear good shoes. Many sights are churches and places of prayer: dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered, keep silent, and expect photography to be forbidden inside the basilicas. Entry to most churches is free. The railway station is in the plain, at Santa Maria degli Angeli, with buses up to the town.

Respect the faith of the pilgrims and the quiet of the holy places. Enjoy Assisi and Umbria, and let us begin.

If you have one day

One day in Assisi & Umbria

A simple way to walk the highlights, following the route order in the app. Swap anything; Assisi & Umbria rewards detours.

The tour

What to see in Assisi & Umbria: all 13 stops

Every place below has its own narrated story in the app, and its own answers when you want more. Walk them in any order; the map shows what is around you.

  1. Basilica of St Francis, Upper Church

    The Upper Church of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, a Gothic hall of light completed in 1253, with twenty-eight frescoes of the life of the saint traditionally attributed to Giotto.

    religious · ~60 min visit

  2. Lower Church and Tomb of St Francis

    The Lower Church of the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi, a low, painted church finished by 1230, with frescoes by Cimabue, Lorenzetti and Simone Martini, and the tomb of the saint in the crypt below.

    religious · ~60 min visit

  3. Basilica of St Clare

    The Basilica of St Clare in Assisi, a Gothic church of pink and white stone built from 1257, with the tomb of Saint Clare and the crucifix that, by tradition, spoke to Francis.

    religious · ~30 min visit

  4. Piazza del Comune and the Temple of Minerva

    Piazza del Comune, the main square of Assisi on the site of the Roman forum, with the columned front of the Roman Temple of Minerva, a medieval tower and the town hall.

    square · ~30 min visit

  5. Cathedral of San Rufino

    The cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi, with a Romanesque front of three rose windows begun in 1140, and the font where, by tradition, both Saint Francis and Saint Clare were baptised.

    religious · ~30 min visit

  6. Rocca Maggiore

    The Rocca Maggiore, the castle on the hill above Assisi, a fortress of pink stone first recorded in the twelfth century and rebuilt in the fourteenth, with wide views over the Umbrian plain.

    castle · ~45 min visit

  7. San Damiano

    San Damiano, the small church among olive trees below Assisi where, by tradition, the crucifix spoke to St Francis, and where St Clare lived with her sisters for more than forty years.

    religious · ~45 min visit

  8. Eremo delle Carceri

    The Eremo delle Carceri, a hermitage in a wooded gorge on Monte Subasio about four kilometres above Assisi, where St Francis and his first companions withdrew to pray in caves.

    religious · ~60 min visit

  9. Santa Maria degli Angeli and the Porziuncola

    The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in the plain below Assisi, a huge church built from 1569 around the Porziuncola, the tiny chapel at the heart of the Franciscan order.

    religious · ~60 min visit

  10. Perugia: Fontana Maggiore and Palazzo dei Priori

    The heart of Perugia, the capital of Umbria, where the carved marble Fontana Maggiore of the 1270s stands between the cathedral and the great Gothic town hall, the Palazzo dei Priori.

    historic · ~120 min visit

  11. National Gallery of Umbria, Perugia

    The National Gallery of Umbria in the Palazzo dei Priori of Perugia, a great collection of Umbrian and Italian painting from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, with Perugino, Piero della Francesca and Fra Angelico.

    museum · ~90 min visit

  12. Spello

    Spello, a small walled hill town of pale pink stone a few kilometres south of Assisi, with Roman gates, lanes full of flowers, frescoes by Pinturicchio and its famous carpets of petals at Corpus Domini.

    village · ~90 min visit

  13. Spoleto: Cathedral and Ponte delle Torri

    Spoleto in southern Umbria, with a Romanesque cathedral of 1198 decorated with a golden mosaic and frescoes by Filippo Lippi, and the Ponte delle Torri, a tall medieval bridge across a wooded gorge.

    historic · ~120 min visit

Did you know?

Three things most visitors miss

Basilica of St Francis, Upper Church

The Basilica of St Francis in Assisi was begun in 1228, the day after Francis was declared a saint, and its Upper Church was completed in 1253.

Lower Church and Tomb of St Francis

To protect it from theft, the friars hid the body of St Francis deep under the floor of the Lower Church in 1230; the tomb was found again only in 1818.

Basilica of St Clare

According to Franciscan tradition, St Francis heard Christ ask him to repair his church while praying before the San Damiano crucifix, which now hangs in the Basilica of St Clare.

Planning

Assisi & Umbria tour: questions and answers

How many days do you need in Assisi & Umbria?

To see Gingerguide's 13 narrated highlights of Assisi & Umbria on foot, plan about a full day. The tour is self-guided, so you set the pace: cover the whole route in a day or spread it across a trip. Each sight has a two to three minute story, roughly 39 minutes of audio in total.

What are the top things to see in Assisi & Umbria?

Gingerguide narrates 13 sights in Assisi & Umbria, starting with Basilica of St Francis, Upper Church, Lower Church and Tomb of St Francis, Basilica of St Clare, Piazza del Comune and the Temple of Minerva. Each one has its own audio story on a live map, and you can ask the built-in AI guide anything the story leaves open.

Do I need a tour guide in Assisi & Umbria?

Not a human one. Gingerguide covers Assisi & Umbria with 13 narrated sights, so you get the stories a guide would tell, at your own pace and on your own route. And if a story leaves you with a question, you can ask the built-in AI guide and discuss the place right there, the way you would with a guide.

How many stops does the Assisi & Umbria audio tour have?

The Assisi & Umbria guide covers 13 sights. Each one has a researched story of roughly three minutes, about 39 minutes of listening in total. You choose the order and the pace; the tour is self-guided.

Does the Assisi & Umbria tour work offline?

Yes. You can download Assisi & Umbria in the app, audio, photos, and offline map tiles included. After the download, the full tour works without an internet connection.

Which languages does the Assisi & Umbria guide support?

Every Assisi & Umbria narration is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Turkish, and Chinese. You can switch the language in the app at any time.

Is the Assisi & Umbria audio guide free?

The Gingerguide app is free to download, and Assisi & Umbria includes a free preview: you can see all 13 sights on the map at no cost. A premium subscription unlocks the full stories, audio narration, and the offline download.

Hear Assisi & Umbria tell its own story.

Preview all 13 Assisi & Umbria stops free in the Gingerguide app.

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Preview all 13 Assisi & Umbria stops free Get the app