And who doesn't know him, Michael Hans Dieter Fellmann! Perhaps the surname is not well known, but it is enough to specify "Michele the German of Quartu" to have a clear idea of the joyful smile and the contagious sympathy of the king of German beer, who in recent days even received honorary citizenship, voted unanimously by the City Council of the third city of the Island.

Because Michele, the German from Quartu, 69, settled in the city 44 years ago, when he first opened the doors of his restaurant, Zum Loeweneck, the lion's corner, in via Magellano, a stone's throw from viale Colombo. "At the time there was only me," he recalls, "only my restaurant and not even a bar around. Then things changed, Quartu was completely transformed. Before, when we went out we only went to Cagliari, because here it was a desert. Now there are pizzerias, restaurants, discos. The city is alive and it is the people of Cagliari who come to us."

The recognition

This honorable citizenship "was a surprise and an honor," he says, "I'm proud. I've been a resident here for a long time and I feel like a citizen in every way. I love this city very much." And to think that at first the thought of coming to the Island was almost a trauma for Michele. "When they sent me to Sardinia for military service I thought: it's a divine punishment. A place so far away and that I don't know." Then in 1974 he was sent to the Decimomannu base as a select airman, assigned to supplies: "It was a revelation. The colors, the sky, the sea. And then the myrtle, the beautiful women, my first feast of Santa Greca. And that's how I decided I would never leave again."

Soon after, an idea took shape: to open a pub to introduce Sardinians to German beer and food. "In 1980 I opened my place, the first typical Bavarian beer hall, which is still there with the same tables." Still active after 44 years, with the owner Michele who always welcomes everyone with a big smile.

In a short time his brewery was listed among the thirty best in Italy and in 1991 he even entered the Guinness Book of Records, for having built the largest simultaneous snuffbox. He still has it here in the place, the snuffbox, but the record no longer exists "because all the records that have to do with smoking and alcohol have been removed from the Guinness Book. Every now and then we take it down because people are having fun." And in fact it has a certain effect to see it come down from above and go into action.