Leisure time in Montefalco or go off to Assisi and beyond?

Is this unfair? Well, your description has certainly stacked the cards against Assisi. It sounds like you know what you want to do, so I’d be foolish to tell you how Assisi’s affected me. It might do nothing for you, knowing you are missing a different unique experience. Assisi is unique but so is the truffle experience. Follow what you really want to do.

I was in both towns last May. Both places have strenuous hills. It will keep you in shape after that farm-to-table dinner.

I like Montefalco a lot. There is no comparison to Assisi though. Assisi is a shrine, a holy place, a place of reverence. Yes, your comments are unfair.
Montefalco is a beautiful traditional town. It attracts many visitors but is not a holy site.

Thank you for your perspectives. I appreciate your point that they are
two very different towns. As for the “shrine” aspect of Assisi,
after 19 years of quality Catholic education (parochial grammar
school, high school, college and nursing school) my cultural
preferences lean more toward the neighborhood salumeria or
hardware store. Shrines and basilicas are okay - with free admission - but not
high on my “must see” list.

Hi Tom- I think it's very reasonable to consider skipping Assisi and opting for a leisurely exploration of Montefalco. I was on the Village Italy tour in June 2023 and was disappointed that we did not have more time there, but I was also frustrated with our Assisi visit!
It was quite hot, so our time in Assisi was cut short as several in the group wanted to return to the villa and swim in the pool. I would rather have stayed in Assisi, even though it was extremely crowded. I had been planning to do Rick's Assisi town walk, but that's the way it goes on a group tour- majority rules. We did not go truffle hunting until the evening.

I enjoyed the Village Italy tour, but was disappointed with the two night stays everywhere. I felt like I was always unpacking and packing. My husband and I are spending seven nights in Umbria at the end of March, but will not be going to Assisi. He just doesn't want to deal with the crowds. Assisi is like many other popular destinations in Italy- best early in the am or in the pm- before/after the day-trippers.

So, if you want to take a break from the bus and crowds to enjoy tranquil Montefalco, you should!

When we took the Village Italy tour in October 2023 I really enjoyed Montefalco. Small and charming which was perfect as the Village Italy tour is a go-get'em experience. It was grand, but I really appreciated the quieter moments of Montefalco.

I grew up Catholic with 12 years of schooling. I am not religious or practicing but I found Assisi quite interesting for a number of reasons. I had no idea people of all walks of life and heritage do pilgrimages there, for example. And there's more to the story of St. Francis than I was ever told.

Regardless, I still can feel the lovely evening at an outdoor table with local wine in the lovely town of Montefalco.

I think you are after validation, so here you go. If don't want to go to Assisi you don't need to.

Personally, a non-Catholic, a Bahá'í in fact, I felt wonderful both at the small church at the bottom of the hill and at the Basilica. Perhaps even more at the bottom of the hill with the nuns.

I have never been to the other, but for me I loved Assisi and the area around.

So, as we used to say 50 years (??!!!?? wow) ago - different strokies for different folkies. Neither is a wrong answer.

To clarify my initial query, rather than looking for validation, I was hoping for some
unvarnished perspectives and recollections on Montefalco and Assisi from people
who toured there with RS. I once had hopes of finding these opinions within
tour reviews. Unfortunately, in my 15 years taking RS tours, I have never seen a one,
two or three star review from a tour member. Five and four star rave-reviews are front
and center. Does the “our people policy emphasizes NO GRUMPS!” extend to
reviews? A question posted via the forum is more likely to return the very helpful
recollections and opinions of fellow travelers. Thanks to all for your insights.

sorry, my visit described above was not on a tour

I haven't take the specific RS tour that you plan to take, but I've been to both Assisi and Montefalco. They are very different experiences, and I am sure you have read of the main sights of Assisi, which we loved, particularly the frescoes. We got "lost" there, and found beautiful views as we wandered through peaceful alleyways above the town. We also loved the town of Montefalco, which I recommend for a different reason than many so far--the food, the wine, the people, and of course the unexpected encounters there. Make a reservation for your dining experience, if you can, so you won't be disappointed. The two of us were fortunate to have a spectacular lunch squeezed into a corner when we showed up without one. Enjoy your choice, whichever it is.

Different people will have different experiences at ths various sites on a tour. It seems clear you feel you will enjoy Montefalco more than Assisi, it really doesn't matter what other people think. Your comment on another post mentions starting to feel rushed on RS tours, so maybe this isn't the tour for you.

I'll add that I need to read itineraries more closely in future--I wish I had done so before the Portugal tour. I'm not a religious person and 3 cloisters, and especially Fatima really didn't interest me. Not really any point in dinging the tour as they were in the itinerary.

I like to holiday at my own pace, it's why I don't go on tours. If you mean two 10 hour days in Montefalco, the second day will be much the same as the first, not necessarily a bad thing. Your choice.

I don't subscribe to the concept of 'must-sees' but I found Assisi to be an especially attractive village, especially at sunset (which you won't experience by the sounds of it). Don't know how much time you will spend there on your tour day, with all the other things going off, but you are not likely to walk the steep side streets, unless by choice.

We did our own DIY hilltop village tour a few years ago in Umbria. I recognize that beauty is in the eye of the beholder so these are my opinions. Obviously, others liked Montefalco. We didn't. Of the villages we visited, I would rate Assisi near the top and Montefalco at the bottom. Assisi is the most crowded but also the most historically and religiously interesting (even though I am not Catholic). And it is beautiful. Montefalco seemed less interesting and less charming than many other villages. It seemed more worn around the edges but not in a good sands-of-time way. It did have a massive parking lot for tour buses ("untouristed"?), which may account for why it winds up on so many lists. I would not return there.
The other villages I would happily return to are Trevi (impressively set on a high hill with comparatively less tourist infrastructure - this was my favorite, was uncrowded, seemed the most genuine, and felt the least like a tourist trap), Gubbio (again, a beautiful village with a nice museum and wonderful shops and restaurants - but the hill is steep), Spello (not as hilly as the others but still very charming).
The whole area is beautiful and there are many beautiful villages to visit.

Point of clarification on the 10 hour estimate - 5 hrs daylight per late
afternoon/evening. We arrive for our first night in Montefalco - after a 5 hr.
bus ride - in the afternoon, check in, unpack a bit, then head out on our
own to find a place for dinner. Sunset is at 8:35pm.

The next morning will have us (typically) back on the bus between
8:30 and 9:00 am and off to Assisi. After taking care of our own lunches
somewhere in Assisi, it’s back on the bus for a late afternoon rendezvous
with a farmer and his truffle-hunting dog; a country estate farm-to-table
dinner; then back to Montefalco with an 8:37pm sundown. (It is our only
tour day described as “strenuous”.)

With time need for a little packing (and getting a good night’s rest), enjoying
the town during the final evening (or even that first evening) is not easy. The day’s tour
activities can be tiring and we rendezvous early for breakfast. The final morning has us
up for a quick breakfast; back to our rooms to deal with toilets and toothbrushing;
get our carryons out to the bus; turn in keys and hustle into our seats.
A late night, spent out-and-about enjoying Montefalco, might be workable - for
the younger members of the group.

But after 7 RS tours, we have accepted this “hurry-up/on-a-tight-schedule/more-‘favorite-
“Wow!-moments”-to-get-in” regimen as the nature of the tour package. It generally
works. I suspect people posting on this topic - who have never been on an
RS tour - cannot relate to the pace and priorities of these RS itineraries.

If only one day in the area is planned, it makes sense to stay where your accomodation is instead of touring. But this is has little to do about the merits of Montefalco and Assisi, and it has much to do with the pace of the tour and the planning of accomodations. Personally I work with a symphony orchestra and we do many whirlwind tours, six concerts in seven days in six different cities, but I would never choose to do such a thing in my leisure time.

Assisi is not a Disneyland, it is one of the many Montefalcos of Italy that at a point of history was hit by a sort of spiritual tornado that left it with a spiritual heritage, several monuments and a signature cycle of frescos; above all left following generations wondering how the thing had been possible. But if you are too tired and to distant to appreciate Assisi, staying in Montefalco is the right thing to do.

We were on this tour in May 2024. The itinerary may vary depending on the guide and time of year, but I think we had a couple of hours in Montefalco after returning from Assisi and prior to the truffle hunt and dinner. We left late afternoon (5ish?) for the truffle hunt and returned after dark.

We really enjoyed the truffle hunt and dinner and I’d encourage you to participate in this even if you skip Assisi.

Maybe we weren’t given as much of an orientation to Montefalco as others were, but for us there wasn’t much to see. Yes, the tiny village was charming and the vistas were beautiful. If there were hikes we didn’t know about them. There aren’t a lot of shops and you can see everything in under an hour. We honestly didn’t happen upon any locals in our wandering around town. So unless you have a solid plan for the day, I’m not sure how you’d spend it in Montefalco.

There are a couple of excellent restaurants in Montefalco. I’d recommend making a reservation at l’Alchemista for your arrival night. Farm to table and Umbrian cuisine and wine. Excellent.

We enjoyed Assisi. You could explore on your own rather than touring the church with the group. The town is quite beautiful. Just wander the streets, take in the flowers in the window boxes or the vista from a tiny alley, etc.

We Forum posters may have overlooked 2025 is a Jubilee year of celebration
for Catholics to reconnect with their faith. Assisi will be the second major
stop after Rome for the millions flocking to Italy for the event. Many people
will come because of ‘Millennial saint’ Carlo Acutis, who on April 27th will
be canonized as the Catholic church’s first millennial saint.

His embalmed body, dressed in jeans, trainers and a blue tracksuit top, is
already on view within a glass-panelled case in Assisi’s Santa Maria Maggiore
church. (He died in 2006 at age 15; his remains exhumed from a local
cemetery in 2019 and moved to Santa Maria Maggiore.) More than 800,000
people from all over the world visited Acutis’s tomb between January and
August of 2024.

As The Guardian reported in December 2024: “Inside a souvenir shop
in Assisi, the face of a boy with thick black curly hair smiles out from wall
tapestries, fridge magnets and key rings, outshining the flying cherubim,
snow globes and other religious trinkets that cram the shelves…Marco Moroni,
a friar and custodian of the Sacred Convent, a friary connected to the Basilica
di San Francesco, is slightly nervous.”

“More than 3 million visitors accessed the basilica this year, and Moroni fears
numbers could double in 2025. The influx will be especially intense in the period
before and after Acutis’s canonisation.” It should be interesting. More than
5 million visitors are expected to visit a town with a population of about 27,400
in the historic centre and wider commune. Let’s hope Umbria has a good inventory
of bagni chimici at the ready and Assisi has a traffic/parking plan for the influx.