The best sandwich you’ve ever tasted could be just a £40 plane ride away. A humble hole-in-the-wall sandwich bar in a small town around 65 miles south of Florence offers, according to one expert, “the best sandwiches in Italy”.

Il Pizzicagnolo di Bartoccioni is the rather grand name for a tiny sandwich shop behind a church in the small Umbrian hill town of Città della Pieve. Owned by Luca Bartoccioni, the shop specialises in sandwiches loaded with local ingredients.

Food writer Russell Higham explains in the Sunday Telegraph: “A rustic kitchen with outside seating serves what are, I’m reasonably certain, the best sandwiches in Italy.”

Il Pizzicagnolo di Bartoccioni is nothing like a busy local Pret that’s offering mass-produced sarnies to busy office workers. “When you order, we bake the focaccia fresh for you right there and then,” Luca says. “Our sausages and red onion are from right here, and the cheese is from Todi, another hilltop town nearby.”

He added that there’s “something else” that makes his his €9 (about £7.80) special: ”That’s ‘truth’, and it’s a word we use a lot in Città. It means you have to give people what you promise. And when you do that, life becomes simple. It means you can believe what people say here.”

It’s not just the quality of ingredients that makes Luca’s sandwiches worth the trip to Umbria. It’s an indefinable attitude that makes everyone in Città della Pieve calm, centred and utterly focused on the job in hand. “Life is simple here,” says Luca’s assistant, Andrea Ciculi. “Quiet – most of the time – and relaxed. The town is beautiful, so life is beautiful too. It’s as simple as that.”

Most of the year, you can munch your sandwich in quiet contemplation but in August, the town comes alive with a colourful festival celebrating Città’s history. One regular event, an archery competition between the town’s Borgo dentro, Casalino” and “Castello districts, with three archers from each team trying to hit a rotating target, takes place right outside Luca’s sandwich shop.

Luca’s sandwich bar, which is open from 10am to 2:30pm every day, has attracted consistently stellar reviews on TripAvisor. Despite the fact that it’s essentially a tiny takeaway with minimal staff Il Pizzicagnolo di Bartoccioni manages to satisfy even quite large groups.

One delighted customer wrote: “There were 10 of us and we were all served at the same time. That might seem obvious except that the place is run by a single person who takes orders, takes payment and prepares everything.

“What’s more, every sandwich is cooked and prepared on the spot. Excellent raw materials, as well as craft beers. If you pass through Città della Pieve, eating here is a must!”

If the descriptions of Luca’s sandwiches have whetted your appetite, Ryanair flights from London Stansted to Perugia, Città’s nearest airport, are available for £40 return. British Airways offers a service from Heathrow to Perugia from around £90, peaking at a little over £110 in August, when Città’s Palio dei terzieri festival takes place.