40 YEARS WITH YOU

Our Story

In 2022, Michele and Ruth decided to relaunch Conca Bella as the first Wine Hotel in Ticino, creating a unique experience for guests, thanks to the long tradition and culture of wine and food.

A renovation of the hotel, from the rooms to the common areas, while maintaining one common thread: wine.

In early 2018, Ruth and her son Michele Montereale decided to make a decisive change to their restaurant, choosing to forgo the Michelin Star and reorient themselves toward a simpler restaurant concept focused on maintaining quality and constant attention to detail, but with amore flexible offering geared toward enhancing the value of local products.  

A happy and pleasant place where you can feel at home, where you can find good service and well-kept dishes, where you can breathe tradition, personality and history. A place to have informal, but still professional contact with guests, bringing the hotel guests even closer.  

In 2012, son Michele joined the company, bringing his own educational background and love for the project he grew up with.  

Together they decide to give it a new twist by renovating the restaurant, which acquires brightness and a more modern look, as well as expanding the offer by creating a Bistro, ready to welcome with its bright colors a clientele looking for an easier version of good food. A cozy Wine-Bar completes the offer and becomes a reference point for a quality aperitif.  

The drama came on the night of December 13, 2002, when Rocco was seized by a fatal illness.  

Rocco's untimely death, just one year after the general renovation, leaves an unbridgeable void in the Montereale family. Ruth, with great drive and passion, took over the management of Conca Bella and successfully carried out the ambitious project, to which she is dedicated with great pride.

The new building, built laterally to the original structure, goes to modernize and enlarge the restaurant as well as create 8 new light-filled rooms in addition to the existing 9. 

With the expansion, Rocco's dream of designing and building a cozy and prestigious Enoteca was realized, and it became Conca Bella's crowning achievement: more than 20,000 bottles of the world's best varietals find space in the meticulously designed facility, ready to welcome the many friends who are passionate about Enogastronomy. 

In 1998 Luca Alberti devoted himself to opening his own business, and Ambrogio Stefanetti joined the kitchen. 

Hard work and great passion are soon rewarded with further recognition: three stars in the former Guida Veronelli, inclusion in the Grandes Tables de Suisse guidebook, and entry into the Italian Le Soste association. 

Not only the cuisine but also the wine cellar, thanks to the great selection of wines, catches the eye of wine experts and is repeatedly awarded the Best of Award of Excellence by Wine Spectator magazine, which lists it among the most prestigious wineries in Switzerland. 

In the room, enhancing the prestigious labels, the great sommelier Paolo Basso, later winner of the title of Best Sommelier in the World in 2013.  

The official opening of Conca Bella took place on April 14, 1984, exactly 20 years after Rocco's arrival in Switzerland.  

In Vacallo, the Montereale Family initiates the writing of an important chapter. 

Rocco, believed to be one of the leading wine connoisseurs in Switzerland, brings his passion in-house by beginning to set up his prized wine cellar. 

In the kitchen at the stove is "Albino," who after two years gives way to Luciano Rodio , and in the dining room an excellent collaborator, Gino Fontana, later established as one of Switzerland's most accomplished sommeliers. 

Hotel Conca Bella boasts a centuries-old tradition. The establishment, founded in 1906 and named Ristorante della Posta or Caferin in 1918, saw its breakthrough in 1984 with the opening by Mr. and Mrs. Montereale of the Conca Bella.  

Thanks go to our long-time contributors...