ONE friend of mine navigates on a "need to know" basis. The driver doesn't need to know the destination, just to be told in good time which road to take and where to turn right or left.

It does keep her other half on his driving toes but, for the back seat passengers, it can mean a thoroughly enjoyable mystery tour. That's how we once came to spend a whole day wandering from the Midlands to West Yorkshire without touching a motorway. Bliss.

Lunchtime found us aproaching Ludlow, where a beautiful and very old half-timbered hotel fed us a delicious selection of sandwiches. What we saw of the town, with its ruined castle, implied that it was a place comfortable with its elegant old streets and unhurried way of life. One of these days, we'll make the return visit we promised ourselves.

When we do, we'll find a town which now has Cittaslow status and, as we approach, signs bearing a highly-ornate snail to say so.

Ludlow was the first town in England to gain this accolade, which originated in Italy in the late Nineties in a bid to stop all small towns becoming clones of each other, all with the same branches of the same chains. Aylsham and Totnes are reported to be thinking of trying to meet the Cittaslow conditions - all 50 of them, reassessed every three years.

It's all about moving life over into the slow lane; about shopping for local food in the unchained butcher, baker and greengrocer, where there's time to discuss what's in season and where it came from; about keeping local markets and customs going; about reducing noise; about ensuring any new development is in keeping with the historic stuff, and, presumably, about having time just to "stand and stare".

But it didn't start with small towns. It really began in a major city, Rome, where a journalist saw that yet another branch of a worldwide fast food chain had opened and, in a country where eating is a leisurely pleasure, he rebelled against eat-and-run. The slow food movement was born.

Out of that grew slow towns, with Greve-in-Chianti and Bra in Piedmont both cited as the first. There are now 400 in Europe, but only one, and two prospectives, in England. Surely some of our market towns in the North-East could benefit from a snail on the signs.

Maybe because it, like Ludlow, has a castle, Richmond came immediately to mind. Then, only last week, Lord Ronaldshay, speaking at the relaunch of the town's Business and Tourism Association, also likened the town to Ludlow.

Then there's Helmsley and Stokesley, and indeed Leyburn, where the founders of that town's wonderful annual food festival actually looked to the festival in Ludlow for ideas. And there's Barnard Castle - a castle again - plus the ancient streets, selection of small, independent businesses and farmers' market so many small North-East towns can offer.

If tourism is going to be increasingly important to this area, the one thing most tourists want to do is unwind. Where better than in a small town where time, and plenty of it, ensures that they can, while being served our excellent locally-produced food.