Assisi: how the basilica works, and how to get up

Entry to the Basilica of San Francesco is free for individual visitors in 2026 with no ticket at all, and the practical problems in Assisi are the different closing times of its three parts and the fact that the train station is 4 km below the town.

Free to walk in, priced for groups

Individual visitors pay nothing and there is no ticket to buy in 2026. Organized groups have to book in advance and pay €2.50 a head for entry, or €3.00 including the radio guides that a guided visit inside requires. Prices in euros.

If you are traveling with a private guide, that booking is on them, and it is worth confirming they have made it before you turn up at the door.

Three parts, three closing times

The lower church runs 6:00 am to 6:30 pm (18:30 on Italian signs), the upper church 8:30 am to 5:45 pm, and the tomb of Saint Francis 6:00 am to 6:00 pm in 2026. On Wednesdays the lower church shuts at 6:00 pm, on Saturdays at 7:00 pm.

The binding one is the upper church, with the Giotto cycle. Build your day so you are inside it by mid afternoon, and use the early morning, when the lower church has already been open for hours, to see the tomb without a queue.

Stairs, toilets, and what you cannot visit

There is no step-free route inside the building between the lower and the upper church in 2026: you go out and take the external ramp between the two squares. For the tomb there is a lift, reserved and opened by staff on request.

No toilets exist inside the basilica. The only ones are in the underground rooms off the lower square, beside the information office. And the Sacro Convento, the friary next door, is not open to tourist visits, which surprises people who have booked a day around it.

Getting up without a car

Assisi's railway station is at Santa Maria degli Angeli, 4 km (2.5 miles) downhill from the walled town, and the link is the Assisi Link shuttle run by Busitalia. Departures come every 20 minutes Monday to Friday and every 15 minutes on Saturdays and holidays, in the 8:00 am to 8:00 pm window.

The 90 minute urban ticket costs €1.30 bought before boarding and €2.00 from the driver. From Perugia the fare is €4.20, from Foligno €3.00. Buying on the ground rather than on board is the cheaper habit, and the difference is the price of a coffee each way.

The listing is a territory, not a church

The World Heritage site called Assisi, the Basilica of San Francesco and other Franciscan sites was inscribed in 2000 on five criteria, (i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi), with a core zone of 14,563.25⁵ hectares and a buffer of 4,086.7⁵.

Inside it are Santa Chiara, Santa Maria degli Angeli down in the plain, the Eremo delle Carceri up on Monte Subasio, San Damiano, Rivotorto and the medieval town within its walls. Two of those are a hillside walk rather than a street corner, so a single day here covers the churches and not much else. See things to do in Assisi and Umbria.

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