A popular pizzeria in Wells will be celebrating its 30th anniversary as it reopens next month following its enforced coronavirus closure.

Da Luciano Pizzeria will be reopen on June 4 with takeaway delivery and collection on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, from 5pm to 9pm.

The business is run by Luciano Raso, who said they were going to build up reopening gradually as the virus eased.

He told Wells Nub News: "We are working in limited numbers to keep in with the government advice of social distancing and hope to increase the hours as the virus eases.

"We aim to offer our usual takeaway from Silvio's Chip Shop menu and our wide selection of pizzas, pasta and Angelina's homemade tiramisu.

"Our pizza is made fresh to order and we want to continue this service and believe that this is one of the reasons we are unique from the others - managing orders can be tricky at times but its what makes our pizza so good."

This has certainly been an unusual 30th anniversary year for the business that was established in April 1990 when it took over a cafe in Broad Street, which is now Bar Italia.

In 2006, the family business moved to its present location across the road, which has more seating space and allowed the enterprise to grow.

Luciano said: "My mother grew up in southern Italy and her family were bakers, it was always her dream to have a piece of that here, so when I returned from working in Italy she encouraged me to find a place and introduce the traditional pizza we continue to make today.

"We are a passionate, hard-working family that have invested a lot of our time in making this work.

"We are very proud to have achieved a great product and to have lasted so long especially as there is more competition from when we first began.

"It was difficult for us to stop working and close our business fully, as we have been doing this for so long but felt that with the threat of the coronavirus looming, our concerns for health and safety were heightened.

"Although we could have continued the takeaway we felt that the risks at that time were too high to risk everyone's health and also knowing our staff could be furloughed it was the best decision for all.

"Being a well-established pizzeria we felt that a short closure would keep everyone safe and we could pick up where we left off.

"We had cut down our days and hours of opening, and cut back our staff, and this is how we will reopen with a gradual build up."

And Luciano is keen to stress that everyone still needs to be careful and alert, despite the business reopening.

"We look forward to producing our unique pizza again," he said.

"We would ask our customers to be patient with us when we reopen as we are working with a limited number of us in the pizzeria.

"We must not forget that the coronavirus is still out there and safety is most important for everyone."