A LONG-RUNNING family business has celebrated its silver anniversary with a party for customers old and new.

Homemade pizzas from mamma's traditional recipes are the secret behind the family-run Italian restaurant Casa Lina.

And on Saturday, the Rochester High Street restaurant celebrated its 25th anniversary with a party for 100 of its most loyal customers.

Owner Carolina Syer said: "It is successful because it is family run. There is always one of us here. And everything is homemade, the way my mother used to make it back home."

Carolina, 63, dreamed of owning her own restaurant since she was a child, but her first venture was a truckers' cafe in Delce Road, Rochester, where the only dishes were bacon and eggs and sausage and mash.

Carolina said: "I quickly became fed up with that. My husband found this place going for sale and my customers were all for me setting up my own Italian restaurant.

"I decided to go for it. I bought the property and started selling pizzas."

Carolina, born in a small village in Italy, was determined to bring authentic dishes to the people of Rochester and the business quickly became a flourishing success after opening in 1977.

While Carolina's husband, Tony, followed his mother-in-law's traditional Italy pizza recipes, Carolina became famous across Medway for her pasta dishes.

The family soon expanded their empire and set up a delicatessen in the High Street. This went on to win an award for the most specialised shop in Scotland, England and Wales.

They also created their own coffee shop, also in the High Street.

This won a conservation award in 1981 after Tony took the shop and converted it backwards into its original Dickensian state.

As Carolina nears retirement age she is adamant she will not give up her beloved restaurant. Daughter Tina is being groomed to keep the business alive for the next 25 years.