Assisi braces for visitor influx as Jubilee year for Catholics starts on Christmas Eve

Some in the small, medieval town famed for St Francis worry too many people will come because of ‘Millennial saint’ Carlo Acutis

Inside a souvenir shop in Assisi, the face of a boy with thick black curly hair smiles out from wall tapestries, fridge magnets and key rings, 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, is. “Americans have asked if he’s an Italian footballer, because of his tracksuit top,” she said.