Assisi (St. Francis and St. Claire) and Cascia (St. Rita) Private Tour from Rome

Recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site, the basilica of St. Francis was built under the direction of Brother Elias, vicar general and architect of the order, starting in 1228, just two years after the saint's death, as a place designed to receive his remains.Pope Gregory IX laid the first stone was on July 17, 1228, the day after the canonization of St. Francis, in the place previously used for executions and burials of criminals. According to tradition, Francis himself, on his deathbed, indicated this spot to his companions as the place for his burial.

The Basilica of St. Clare of Assisi, realized with the typical pink stone extracted from the quarry of the Subasio mountain, contains precious frescos dating back to the period from the XIIth to the XIVth century.
In the chapel on the right, along the unique nave of St. Clare of Assisi, finishing in transept and polygonal apse, you can admire the Crucifix which, according to tradition, would have invited St. Francesco in the church of St. Damiano in order to "reset up the Church".

Built on a grandiose scale, the Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli is the seventh largest Christian church. Its magnificence may be at odds with the simplicity preached by St Francis himself but the flocks of pilgrims coming to visit the primitive Porziuncola chapel and the Cappella del Transito called for a building that was able to accomodate the faithful. The Porziuncola chapel was given to St Francis by the Benedictines, and is important because it was the initial nucleus from which the Franciscan order was born. The Cappella del Transito is the place where the saint died on October 4th 1226.

The Saint born in 1381 in the near Roccaporena and baptized with the name of "Margherita", on desire of the father got married renouncing, in a first time, to enter in an Augustinian convent according to what were really her most intimate aspirations. After 18 years of a difficult and violent wedding, her exemplary conduct led the husband to convert himself. In a period of communal battles the husband was killed by the family of the Casciani; "Margherita", in order to avoid bloody and never ending vendetta, forgave her proper compatriots and was welcomed in the Monastery of the Augustinian Sisters of Santa Maria Maddalena. In 1442, during the night of Holy Friday, she received the stigmata from a thornbush of the crown of the Crucifix , that according to the tradition, embedded itself in her forehead.

Venerable Carlo Acutis from an early age he recited frequent rosaries and received his First Communion at the age of 7. He contracted Leukemia at young age, and although he had requested that his parents take him on pilgrimages to the sites of all the know Eucharistic miracles in the world, his failing health prevented that. He died from M3 fulminant leukemia on 12 October 2006 at the age of 15. He was buried in Assisi in accordance with his wishes.