Central Italy holds the most in the least distance. Rome and Assisi are about 175 km (110 miles) apart, and between and around them lie Orvieto, whose cathedral keeps the Corporal of Bolsena, the altar linen tied to the Eucharistic miracle tradition of 1263; Cascia, with the body of St. Rita; Greccio, where St. Francis made the first Nativity scene in 1223; and La Verna in Tuscany, where he received the stigmata in 1224. Siena keeps the head of St. Catherine in the Basilica of San Domenico, while her body rests in Rome at Santa Maria sopra Minerva.
In the north, Padua’s Basilica of St. Anthony holds his tomb, which pilgrims touch as they file past. Turin has St. John Bosco’s tomb at Valdocco and St. Pier Giorgio Frassati’s in the cathedral, where the Shroud is also kept, though it is shown only at rare public expositions. Milan has the tomb of St. Ambrose and, beneath the cathedral, the baptistery where he baptized St. Augustine in 387.
To the south and east, San Giovanni Rotondo in Puglia holds the body of St. Pio of Pietrelcina; Lanciano in Abruzzo keeps the relics of the earliest of the widely known Eucharistic miracle traditions; Loreto in the Marche shelters the house venerated by tradition as Mary’s home in Nazareth; Monte Cassino has the tomb venerated as St. Benedict’s; and the shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary at Pompei, near Naples, holds the tomb of its founder, St. Bartolo Longo, canonized in 2025.
Nobody sees all of this in one visit, and trying to means more hours on a coach than in a church. For a first journey, Rome and Assisi fill eight to ten days well. After that, choose a thread: Franciscan Italy, the Eucharistic miracle towns, or Padre Pio and the south. Churches in Italy commonly close for a few hours at midday, so check each shrine’s own page before a day trip.