Umbria con Me · Assisi
An official Umbria con Me guide meets you at the lower entrance and spends an hour in the Upper Church, the Lower Church and the tomb of St Francis. Pick it if the basilica is what you came for and you'd rather explore the rest of Assisi on your own.
No ticket is needed to enter the Basilica of St Francis, so the real question is whether a guide is worth $46. Inside there are no labels, photos are banned and two churches are stacked on top of each other: the Upper Church with the 28-scene Life of St Francis, traditionally attributed to Giotto (the attribution is debated), and the Lower Church with work by Cimabue, Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti, above the crypt with the tomb. A guest in October 2026 put it plainly: you can walk through for free, but you will miss most of what the guide points out.
The hour is split evenly between the two churches, the group stops at 15, and guests say guides ask why you came and tune the visit to it. One snag: solo travellers say it can be hard to book a single place, and one bought two. If that happens, try another time or the small-group walk, which also covers the basilica.
The listing doesn't spell out the day rules, but the basilica's do: guided tours inside run from 09:00 to 17:15 on weekdays, with last entry at 16:00 on Saturdays, per the basilica's hours page. On Sundays and holidays no guide may lead you inside, so book Monday to Saturday.
Meet at the lower entrance of the basilica, Piazza Inferiore di San Francesco 2. A 2025 guest's tip: walk to the top of the porticoed square and wait by the railings next to the Lower Church door.
The dim, frescoed Lower Church and the stairs down to the crypt where Francis is buried.
The bright Gothic church with the 28 scenes of the saint's life and Cimabue's work in the transept.
The tour ends where it started. Piazza del Comune is about 15 minutes uphill along Via San Francesco.
★★★★★Very informative tour of the artwork adorning the interior of the bassilica. Our guide customized the tour to our interests by asking about our motivation for signing up for the tour, which was much appreciated.
★★★★★We went through the full lower and upper church including St Francis tomb. One of the most spectacular churches I visited in Italy.
★★★★★My husband was in a wheelchair, and everyone from the tour guide, the guards, the police were helpful in getting him from place to place.
★★★★★Our tour guide was very friendly and extremely informative and passionate about the basilica .
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No. Entry is free for individual visitors and no ticket is required. The tour's admission line is the guided visit.
Sometimes not: a June 2026 guest found no single tickets and bought two. Try other times or the small-group walk.
The listing says no, though one guest in a wheelchair was helped through both churches by the guide and the custodians. Ask the operator first.
Guides may not lead groups inside on Sundays and holidays. Guided visits run Monday to Saturday, 09:00 to 17:15, with last entry at 16:00 on Saturdays.
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One focused hour inside the Basilica of St Francis with an official guide: Upper Church, Lower Church and tomb.
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