Italian gem that is simply heavenly: let yourself be enchanted by the secret alleys and venerable churches of ancient Assisi

The chime of the bells on the hour echoed across the rooftops below my window. In the vast plain of Valle Umbra, under the ancient walls of Assisi, domes and bell towers rise from the morning mist. And everywhere, loudly heralding the spring, birdsong.

All this just a 20 minute drive from Perugia Airport and yet it feels like I’ve traveled back centuries.

Assisi is a beautifully preserved cairn that balances on the lower slopes of Monte Subasio in the Apennines. There are other hilltop villages in this part of Umbria, lovely places like Spello and Todi where you can see Renaissance masterpieces in dark churches, but Assisi with its secret roads and archways is something special.

In 1206, the son of a local merchant and failed knight, Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, heard a call from God. He renounced his family’s wealth and began a life of poverty, prayer and service. Today we know him as Saint Francis, and it is largely thanks to him that Assisi is so beautiful, dotted with medieval and Renaissance buildings that honor his memory.

Eyes will be on the city this summer when London’s National Gallery opens a must-see St Francis exhibition, featuring the likes of Botticelli, Zurbaran and Sir Antony Gormley.

Michael says Assisi is a “special” place, with its secret side streets and arched alleys

Assisi is where the story begins, in Piazza del Vescovado, the place where Francis declared his vocation before taking off his fine clothes, telling his father that God was now his father, and walking naked through an arch to the bishop’s palace went Archaeological excavations under the bishop’s residence have rediscovered the arch and visitors can now walk through it, but since nuns are nearby, it’s best to dress up.

While Francis, newly sober, has given up spoiling food, you don’t have to. Cross the square to La Locanda del Cardinale. The 16th-century brick vaults are wonderful, but while you enjoy grilled water fish and a glass of Umbrian Pinot Grigio, look through the glass floor at Roman mosaics and two millennia of rubble.

Next door at Santa Maria Maggiore there is more time travel. Follow the stairs inside the church, down through an early medieval vault and then deeper into a Roman room decorated with murals depicting dozens of bird species.

And wait until you see the Roman Forum buried under the city’s main square. According to the Umbria Tourist Board, a visit is “a dive into the bowels of Assisi” – but don’t let that put you off, it’s very impressive.

Miraculously preserved: According to Michael, the Basilica of St. Francis is the “biggest” church in the city

The magnificent interior of the Basilica of Saint Francis, which houses some of Giotto’s beautiful frescoes

“All this is only a 20-minute drive from Perugia airport, and yet it feels like I’ve traveled back centuries,” says Michael van Assisi (above).

Come above ground and you will find the great columned facade of the Temple of Minerva. Long ago converted into the Santa Maria sopra Minerva, this is just one of the city’s many churches, the largest of which is the Basilica of St. Francis is, built over the tomb of the saint and with some beautiful Giotto frescoes.

A pleasant 15-minute walk from the other side of town is the Basilica of Saint Clare, which contains the original 1100 AD crucifix that is said to have spoken to Francis. It seems incredible survival but there it is hanging from the ceiling over your head.

Outside the city walls, the Basilica de Santa Maria degli Angeli is a huge church – the fifth largest in Christendom – built on top of a small church, the portiuncula. Francis and his first 12 companions prayed in this chapel. It’s beautiful and strange, but certainly not the strangest church there is. It is in Valle Umbra, where the Santuario del Sacro Tugurio di Rivotorto encloses an 800-year-old stone bungalow revered as “the sacred hut” – the first home of Francis and his colleagues.

If you want to get away from the basilicas, follow the saint out of town to the hilltop monastery of La Verna which is an hour and a half away and over the border into Tuscany.

The last part of the trip is a long climb to the eerie Casentinesi Forests National Park, home to wolves and wild boars.

Above is the Santa Maria sopra Minerva, “just one of the many churches in the city”

A day from Assisi is the eerie Casentinesi Forests National Park (above), home to wolves and wild boar

This is still the landscape where Francis walked, prayed and preached to animals, especially birds, creatures he believed were created by God just like us.

You can visit the cave where he slept and the place where he received the stigmata – the wounds of Christ – in 1224 when a seraphim appeared in a vision. The place is marked with a stone and surrounded by a chapel.

If you can, spend an hour or two exploring Perugia before heading home, especially the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria. Unfortunately, last Sunday was the last day of Perugia’s famous annual Chocolate Festival. But console yourself with the thought that Saint Francis will approve of your restraint.