Holy trail Assisi braced for influx as faithful celebrate jubilee and millennial saint

Inside a souvenir shop in Assisi, the face of a boy with thick black curly hair smiles out from wall tapestries, fridge magnets and keyrings, outshining the flying cherubim, snow globes and other religious trinkets that cram the shelves.

- Angela Giuffrida

Inside a souvenir shop in Assisi, the face of a boy with thick black curly hair smiles out from wall tapestries, fridge magnets and keyrings, outshining the flying cherubim, snow globes and other religious trinkets that cram the shelves. But the owner, Elvira Boccacci, is struggling to explain to some intrigued tourists who Carlo Acutis, the boy in the image, actually is. "Americans have asked if he's an Italian footballer, because of his tracksuit top," she said.

Boccacci will imminently have to get used to dealing with even more inquisitive customers. From tomorrow, when Pope Francis officially opens Jubilee 2025, a year of celebrations for Catholics around the world to reconnect with their faith, Assisi will be the second major stop after Rome for the thousands flocking to Italy for the event.

Without doubt they will visit the tomb of Francis, Italy's patron saint, who was born in the medieval hilltop town and whose remains are buried up the road from Boccacci's shop, in the majestic 13th-century basilica built in his honour. But they will also be lured by Acutis, who in late April will become the Catholic church's first millennial saint. His embalmed body, dressed in jeans, trainers and a blue tracksuit top, is on view behind a glass-panelled case in Assisi's Santa Maria Maggiore church.