Bella Italia
This restaurant in Port Angeles, Washington (see Port Angeles, Washington) serves traditional Italian food using locally grown organic vegetables in preparing their meals. The menu includes specialty pizzas and seafood. In recent years, Bella Italia has received some attention for its appearance in the Twilight series of novels by author Stephenie Meyer.
Twilight
The Italian restaurant appears in the first novel in the series, Twilight, as "La Bella Italia." In the book, Bella Swan and the vampire Edward Cullen have their first date here. They come here after Edward saves Bella from muggers after she gets lost looking for another book store after visiting one that didn't have what she was looking for (see Twilight Saga: Port Book and News). While Bella eats, she and Edward begin to get to know one another more.
Reportedly, the facility was visited by Meyer herself in early-2008, which further cemented its place in Twilight-lore. As it is, the restaurant is one of the locations in the city of Port Angeles that has seen a rise in Twilight-based tourism in recent years. For the release of the film adaptation, the restaurant even added the dish that Bella ordered (mushroom ravioli), vampire wine, and Twilight cupcakes from the time of release through the end of 2008 to celebrate its connection to the series.
Movie Adaptation
The scene in the restaurant was included in the 2008 film adaptation of Twilight by director Catherine Hardwicke with a minor change. In the movie version, the restaurant is known as the Bloated Toad (see Forks, Washington) and Port Angeles, the actual filming took place primarily in the Oregon cities of Saint Helens and Portland.