From the valley floor Assisi looks like a long pale ribbon draped across the lower slope of Monte Subasio, and the colour comes from the mountain itself. The town is built of Subasio stone, a limestone that ranges from cream to rose, and in the evening light the whole place glows pink. It is, of course, the town of Francis, the merchant's son who gave away everything in the early thirteenth century and founded the Franciscan order, and of Clare, who followed him. The great basilica built over his tomb, begun in 1228, has two churches one above the other, and the frescoes inside, including the cycle of the saint's life traditionally attributed to Giotto, changed the course of European painting.
In 1997 an earthquake brought down part of the vault of the upper church, killing four people inside, and the restoration that followed, piecing together tens of thousands of fragments, is a story of extraordinary patience. Down on the plain, Santa Maria degli Angeli is an enormous later basilica built around the Porziuncola, the tiny chapel where Francis began his community and where he died.
For riding, the Umbrian valley around Assisi is gentle and pretty, but the real treat is Monte Subasio. A road climbs from the town past the Eremo delle Carceri, the hermitage where Francis went to pray, and on up through woods onto the open grassy top of the mountain, then down towards Spello or Collepino. It is narrow, with tight bends and some rough patches, and the views over the valley towards Perugia and the Apennines are superb. Elsewhere, the roads to Gualdo Tadino and Nocera Umbra climb into quieter, greener hills, and south past Spello and Foligno you reach the Fonti del Clitunno and its little Lombard-era temple.
The historic centre of Assisi is a limited traffic zone, so leave the bike at one of the car parks below the walls and walk; the lanes are steep and the paving can be slippery when wet. Santa Maria degli Angeli has fuel and supermarkets, and the town has plenty of trattorias. Try strangozzi, thick hand-rolled pasta often served with black truffle or a simple tomato sauce, and a glass of Sagrantino from Montefalco, on the hill across the valley.