Bella Italia Weine, Stuttgart

Published: 7/10/2008 6:12:00 AM

Keywords: Dining | Wine Champagne and Spirits

Experience the warmth of Sicily and the best of Italian wine in this wine store cum restaurant in Stuttgart, Germany. Occupying the ground floor of a five-story brickhouse in rustic Wilhelminian style, Bella Italia Weine does not give much away from the outside.

But step inside the restaurant, and you will be overwhelmed by the multitudes of your own reflections looking back at you from the more than 90 different mirrors on the ceiling. If only the wicked Queen from Snow White had known of Bella’s existence.

German architects Gunter Fleitz and Peter Ippolito from the Ippolito Fleitz Group designed the restaurant’s eccentric interiors. For a few years, Bella’s owner Maria Patané has run her wine boutique and restaurant from a small living-room-like dwelling, and only moved here in 2007 because she ran out of space.

The restaurant serves home-style Italian cuisine paired with a variety of wines directly imported from exclusive producers in Italy.