Basilica of Santa Rita of Cascia

Basilica of Santa Rita of Cascia tickets: which one to buy

Entry is free. The monastery museum beside the basilica, the cell where Rita lived and the lower church are also free or ask a small donation. Cascia is in the mountains of eastern Umbria, ninety minutes from Perugia and two and a half hours from Rome by road, with a coach service from Rome's Tiburtina station a few times a day; there is no railway.

Pilgrimage groups come by chartered bus and fill the town on feast days. Guided tours are arranged through the sanctuary office for groups. Nothing needs booking for individuals. The town has hotels and restaurants built for pilgrim numbers rather than for tourism, which keeps prices low. The sanctuary runs a guesthouse for pilgrims and a bookshop, and the town's shops sell blessed roses year-round.

Visiting Basilica of Santa Rita of Cascia: what to see

Rita of Cascia, married at twelve to a violent husband, widowed and then bereaved of both sons, entered the Augustinian convent here and died in 1457; she is the patron of impossible causes and of abused wives, and her cult is one of the largest in Italy. The basilica was built between 1937 and 1947 to hold the crowds her canonisation in 1900 attracted, on a Greek cross plan in white travertine from Tivoli, and the interior is a full-blown twentieth-century scheme of frescoes and mosaics in strong colour that surprises visitors expecting something medieval.

Rita's body lies in a glass and silver case in a side chapel, dressed in the Augustinian habit. Her cell, the old convent and a garden with a rose bush said to descend from one that flowered in winter at her request are all shown. The lower church, completed later than the main one, is decorated with mosaics by the Centro Aletti and is quieter than the basilica above. Rita's stigma, a wound on her forehead said to have appeared after praying before a crucifix, is part of her iconography and is shown in the frescoes around the nave.

Basilica of Santa Rita of Cascia opening hours and the best time to go

Open daily from early morning to evening, with masses through the day. The feast of St Rita on 22 May is the great day, with the blessing of roses and a procession, and the town is full for a week around it; roses are brought by pilgrims all year and blessed at the shrine. Cascia sits at 650 metres and is cold and snowy in winter.

The region was badly damaged by the earthquakes of 2016 and some nearby villages remain closed, though the basilica itself was unharmed. Dress modestly. Photography is allowed. Allow an hour. Roccaporena, the hamlet where Rita was born, is five kilometres away and is part of the pilgrimage. Buses from Rome and Perugia stop below the basilica, and the last departures are in the late afternoon.