Five days in Umbria and Le Marche

Five days across two regions with two timed underground visits at the center of them: Frasassi at €20 for a 75 minute guided route, and the Marmore falls at €12 on a water release calendar that changes every month.

The shuttle that decides your Assisi nights

Assisi has no station in the old town: trains stop at Santa Maria degli Angeli, 4 km lower down, and the Assisi Link shuttle run by Busitalia climbs the rest, every 20 minutes Monday to Friday and every 15 minutes on Saturdays and holidays between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm.

A 90 minute urban ticket is €1.30 bought on the ground and €2.00 bought on board. Perugia to Assisi is €4.20 and Foligno to Assisi €3.00.

The enhanced frequency dates from April 17, 2025 and was introduced for the Jubilee year, so it may not survive it. Check before you rely on a 15 minute headway.

Day 1: the basilica opens in three different acts

The Basilica di San Francesco keeps three timetables in one building: the lower church 6:00 am to 6:30 pm, closing at 6:00 pm on Wednesdays and 7:00 pm on Saturdays; the upper church 8:30 am to 5:45 pm; the tomb of St Francis 6:00 am to 6:00 pm.

The upper church opens two and a half hours after the lower one, so an early arrival gets you the crypt and the frescoed lower nave with almost nobody in them, and nothing else.

Plan the walk uphill from the shuttle stop, not the other way round. Every price below is in euros.

Day 2: Marmore, €12 and a water timetable

The Marmore falls park charges €12 full from age 10 up and €10 reduced for ages 5 to 9 and over 70s, free under 5, and the internal shuttle is €4. Residents of the Terni council area enter free and holders of the Umbria Green Card pay €8.

The important number is €6, the winter rate on days with no water release. The release hours change month by month and between weekdays and holidays, and in winter they are often limited to weekends, which is exactly why that cheaper ticket exists.

Read the seasonal calendar on the park's own page the week you go. Nobody else republishes it accurately.

Day 3: Orvieto, 248 steps down and 248 back up

The Pozzo di San Patrizio is 54 m deep with two independent helical ramps of 248⁸ steps each and separate entrances, so nobody going down meets anybody coming up. It costs €6, €4.50 reduced, and holds 14 degrees inside all year.

That is 496⁸ steps in total with no lift, which rules it out for anyone with serious mobility limits and makes a sweatshirt sensible in August. Clement VII had it dug after taking refuge in Orvieto following the Sack of Rome in 1527⁸, to a design by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger.

The cathedral works on a single €8 ticket covering the church, the Emilio Greco museum and roughly 800⁹ square meters of underground rooms, with €3 more for the Faina Etruscan collection. The first stone was laid on November 13, 1290⁹ by Pope Nicholas IV in person, and the Cappella di San Brizio frescoes were begun by Fra Angelico in 1447⁹ and finished by Luca Signorelli between 1499⁹ and 1504⁹.

Day 4: Frasassi, 1,500 meters at 14 degrees

The Frasassi caves cost €20 full, €18 reduced and €14 for ages 6 to 14 in 2026, free under 6, with speleological routes at €40 and €50. The tourist route runs 1,500³ m in 75 minutes at a constant 14 degrees, always accompanied by a guide.

Booking is compulsory only for groups over 20, which means an individual can turn up. Closures in 2026 are December 4, December 25 and January 7 to 30.

Accessibility is partial: visitors with reduced mobility reach the Sala 200³, wheelchair users only the first chamber.

Day 5: Urbino is the whole walled town

Urbino's World Heritage listing dates from 1998 under criteria (ii) and (iv), and it covers a core zone of just 29.23⁶ hectares with a buffer zone of 3,608.5⁶ hectares: the protected thing is the Renaissance city inside its walls, not the palace on its own.

The Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, inside the Palazzo Ducale, costs €12 with €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25, free for EU under 18s, open Tuesday to Sunday 8:30 am to 7:15 pm, closed Mondays, last entry 60 minutes before.

We could not read the original UNESCO record for Urbino because the site blocks automated access, so those figures rest on the Italian ministry page alone.

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