Chum has hesitation, wanting little time in Italian city (7)
I believe the answer is:
palermo
'italian city' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'chum has hesitation wanting little time' is the wordplay.
'chum' becomes 'pal' ('pal' can be a synonym of 'chum').
'has' says to put letters next to each other.
'hesitation' becomes 'er'.
'wanting' says to put letters next to each other.
'little time' becomes 'mo' (I've seen this in other clues).
'pal'+'er'+'mo'='PALERMO'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for palermo that I've seen before include "Sicilian capital" , "ity of Italy" , "Sicilian city" , "Chief port of Sicily" , "Italian city" .)