Where & How to Spend Christmas With an Italian Saint

If you want a Christmas devoid of commercialism and steeped in contemplation and peace, The Franciscan Sanctuary of La Verna is for you.

This enchanting place of refuge and tranquility, alive with the spirit of Saint Francis, is located in Eastern Tuscany in the area called Casentino.

The monastery is built on top of a rocky spur surrounded by woods. Saint Francis walked here from his birth place of Assisi, spreading his message in villages and meditating in forest caves.

When I went here for Christmas with a visiting friend, even I, as an utterly non-religious person, easily felt how steeped in holiness the place is.

Prior to dinner, we spent our first the first evening in the monastery (Christmas Eve) getting lost.

Shadow filled stone corridors lead to obscured stone steps, which led to ancient wooden doors with sliding iron bars for latches. We passed into a courtyard, and then another, and then more shadowy corridors and more doors where we felt for latches in the dark until we finally found the quadrante–-a large paved space at the edge of a cliff.

Here, the most marvelous sunset had us racing to the wall. Below us, a blanket of white clouds. Above us, a pink and gold sky.

We kept thinking it would end quickly as sunsets often do, but it continued for a surreal length of time. We didn’t have our phones with us, so I don’t have pictures. But sunsets like that are always better in person.

It was a surprise to enter the dining room and find it packed. I had no idea so many people went there for Christmas. Apparently their rooms were fully booked. We were the only foreigners. We found our names at a table for four and we were warmly greeted by our dining companions, a couple about our age from Rome.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes—also known as La Vigilia—is the traditional Italian fare on Christmas Eve. We started with seafood risotto, then prawns grilled on skewers, then peas with cuttlefish, then salad and then I lost count.

Of course wine was included and at the end they came around with Prosecco which was a nice touch.

While the accommodation is simple as can be, the food was far better than I had imagined. (My concept of monastery food came from my pilgrimage on the Via Francigena. At the nunnery in Vetralla, it was plain spaghetti noodles with olive oil and a dusting of parmegiano for dinner. For breakfast, moldy bread.)

La Verna is an important site of pilgrimage for anyone who is attached to Saint Francis. Not only does the monastery possess numerous relics of his, but it is also the place where he received the stigmata. A chapel is built over that spot. The chapel’s altarpiece is a large glazed terracotta work by Andrea della Robbia.

The Della Robbia were a family of artists, known for glazed ceramics, who were active in 15th century Florence. The Castentino area contains fifty Della Robbia works and a third of them are at La Verna.  

Andrea della Robbia did this Annunciation for the basilica. It’s considered masterpiece, for the sweetness of the expressions of the angel and Mary.

He also did a glazed ceramic rondel of the stemma of Florence’s Wool Guild which is on the Basilica’s ceiling. This guild—one of the most wealthy– paid for the completion of the Basilica after the initial gift of money from a count, ran out.

Not only is the art here lovely, but there are ample hiking trails, and it seems everyone who walks them does so with heightened consciousness of treading lightly on the land.

If you are interested in walking the Way of Saint Francis, this is where it officially starts. From here it heads to San Sepolcro, Gubbio, Assisi, and ends in Rome.

If you want an utterly simple Christmas where everything feels pared down to contemplation, peace, and goodwill, I highly recommend La Verna.

Go here to book your stay.

In the video below, I take you to some of the special places at La Verna.

Erratum: I say St Francis’s habit was from 1226 but it was in fact from 1224 as that was the year of his last visit to La Verna. He died in 1226 in Assisi.

For more on special corners of Tuscany:

My guide to eating in the Val d’Orcia

My guide to Tuscany’s Autumn food festivals

My recommendations for wine estates in Tuscany