Nonnamelia l'hostaria, Orvieto, Umbria

Orvieto is officially a slow town. A 'cittaslow' as the Italians call it. You can feel it in the streets.

The initiative was founded in Italy (of course) as a spinoff of the now well-recognised Slow Food movement, which itself began as a reaction to the entry of McDonald's into Rome in 1986. Cittaslow is a valiant bid to promote a better way of life, to improve the environment and to resist the intrusion of large franchise stores, and therefore the erosion of individuality. British towns are now being invited to join the more than 30 Italian communities which have taken up the challenge of resisting the frenetic, ever-quickening pace of living and trying to improve the quality of life.

Anyway, the point is I was reading about all this while sitting in this lovely restaurant on the Via del Duomo one lunchtime, waiting for our order. The front doors of the restaurant throw open to the street on warm days or evenings, the dining room is filled with quirky wooden furniture and even quirkier chandeliers, and the young staff is on the ball. The food was pretty good too. We ate here twice. The suckling pig was good, as were the lamb cutlets and the beef straccato. We know the restaurant makes its own bread, because we stumbled inadvertently into the kitchen and found them doing so. The service, as befits a 'cittaslow' was unhurried, but efficient, so that we always had bread or wine or water to accompany conversation between courses.

So it was with some incongruity, in this relaxed restaurant in this slow town, that an American family bustled in that lunchtime anxiously looking at their watches, and the mother, most anxious of all, and apparently concerned that they might miss their rail connection, demanded of the waitress, "How quickly can you make us a pizza?"

Nonnamelia L'hostaria, Via del Duomo, 25 Orvieto

Tel 0763 342402

Nonnamelia appears not to have a website, but you'll find some reviews if you search.