Taste of Shropshire at Italian festival
Brewers from Shropshire-based brewery Hobsons are preparing to set off with a special delivery to an Italian town twinned with Ludlow for its annual Magnalonga.
The food and drink festival attracts thousands of people each year to San Pietro, near Verona. Visitors take part in a gastronomic tour of the region's famed vineyards, with a different menu at various stages of the tour.
This year there will be a taste of Shropshire, with the Cleobury Mortimer-based brewery's strong auburn ale Old Henry chosen by the organisers to feature.
A delegation of 30 from the brewery are heading to the festival, which will start on Sunday, armed with 25 firkins of the cask ale.
Ludlow will hold its own version of the Magnalonga, which includes an eight-mile walk and attracts hundreds of people to the town, in August.
Nick Davis, from Hobsons, said: "It's fantastic to be invited along to the Magnalonga. We visited the festival 10 years ago and it's great to be part of the event in our 20th year.
"In some ways we will be the odd ones out offering beer instead of wine, but the Italians are getting a taste for the superb qualities of real British beer.
"It was Valpolicella's Magnalonga which inspired Ludlow's own version.
"Although Ludlow is lacking in vineyards, more than 600 people enjoy this eight-mile walk each year, which takes in the glorious countryside around the town alongside wonderful local food and drink."
Formally twinned with San Pietro in 1992, Ludlow has forged strong relationship with the wine producers of the Valpolicella region.
The origins of this relationship began when a pantechnicon full of wine, fruit and vegetables arrived from Verona and Valpolicella for the second Ludlow Food Festival in 1996.
Since then, the wines of Valpolicella have featured regularly at the food and drink festival in the town.
Stanley Jones, chairman of the Italian Twinning Association, said: "It's great that this year we are visiting them and bringing along some hand-crafted beer from our region."
