La Locanda del Baio, Loreto Aprutino, Abruzzo

Imagine the scene, if you will. Two English people with little grasp of Italian save for a few words walk into a small ristorante pizzerie in a remote village in Abruzzo. The staff have even less grasp of English, and why would they? Until the recently converted Castello Chiola started attracting British and American tourists to its new hotel rooms, such foreigners were, I imagine, a rare sight in the village. Perhaps even now they are a rare sight at La Locanda del Baio, as the hotel does its best, understandably, to keep hold of you for dinner as well as for bed.

But sometimes the hotel restaurant thing is just too much. They can try too hard, the dining room can be too hushed for comfort, the service too attentive and yet the food mediocre. We didn't eat at Castello Chiola so I may be doing them a great injustice and the food may be spectacular... but that evening we just didn't fancy the rigmarole of smartening ourselves up for dinner. So we found ourselves knocking, in jeans and tee shirts, at La Locanda's door. The welcome we received was beautifully, correctly, indifferent: you're not Italian, you're tourists and we can't understand you, but this is what we serve and this is how we serve it, so what do you want? No fuss. We had a very good meal here, and paid an exceptionally good price for it. The same price, I imagine, as the locals who frequent the place. Most of all we felt completely welcome. And relaxed.

Bruschette and pasta and grilled meats later, we left. And as we did, the entire staff, who had gathered anyway at the end of the evening for a chat, bade us a friendly farewell. I hope that La Locanda has, if it wants it, picked up some more diners staying at the Castello. But I hope too that this tourism doesn't go to its head. If our gum-chewing waitress has anything to do with it, I doubt that it will.

La Locanda del Baio, Via Baio 21, 65014 Loreto Aprutino

Tel 085 829 0674

No website I can find.

Castello Chiola, Loreto Aprutino, Pescara, Abruzzo

The mountains became mightier and snow-capped as we drove south. Road signs for Loreto Aprutino were elusive and intermittent, and we got caught up in the tangled mess that is the outskirts of Pescara. But eventually we reached the hilltop and followed a steep cobbled road to where honey-coloured Castello Chiola, our destination for just one night, watched over the town.

Here was quite simply the largest hotel room we have ever stayed in. You could pace about the room for hours and not pass the same piece of furniture twice. I mean, this was one big bedroom. When you occasionally passed a window, the views over the town and the still-snow-capped mountains were splendid. Outside, a small pool on the sun terrace was icy cold, but once the feeling returned to my lips I was able to describe it as 'refreshing'.

We didn't eat at the hotel, thinking the dining room and the menu too grand for what we wanted that evening – a simple, relaxed supper. The town isn't exactly awash with restaurants, but just yards from the hotel we found a door in a wall behind which we enjoyed excellent food at the most modest of prices. A simple antipasto of bruschetta, then pasta and beautifully tender grilled meats were served to us by a gum-chewing waif of a girl. At the end of the evening, the staff of the restaurant were gathered in another part of the room and smiled and nodded graciously as we left.

We returned through the keep to the hotel, and reached our room. Just half an hour's walk across the dense carpet, and we'd made it to the bed.

Castello Chiola, Via degli Aquino, 12 65014 Loreto Aprutino (PE)

Tel 085 8290690

Castello Chiola, Abruzzo