She is a beautiful Italian (8)
I believe the answer is:
isabella
'she' is the definition.
'is a beautiful italian' is the wordplay.
'beautiful italian' becomes 'bella' ('beautiful' in Italian).
'is'+'a'+'bella'='ISABELLA'
(Other definitions for isabella that I've seen before include "sludgy colour" , "Consort of Edward II" , "Mother of Edward III" , "foreign girl" , "Spanish queen who was patron of Christopher Columbus" .)