#ur-ko

Imported enjoyment

Villa Torlonia is a grand 19th century mansion in Rome, which latterly served as Mussolini's official residence and then as Allied High Command headquarters after the war. The Italian state subsequently redeveloped it, opening the grounds as a public park. The orangery is now a rather grand café with a terrace, and in recent years it has hosted an annual festival of Franconian beer -- FrankenBierFest -- organised by Roman beer institution, The Football Pub. It just so happened that the 2026 edition was taking place when I was in Rome with EBCU a couple of weeks ago. The programme lists 91 different beers, poured both from kegs and  Bayerische Anstich wooden casks, though I reckon not more than half of these were on sale at the bars at any one time. Arriving when things were in full swing on the Saturday evening, I could tell this wasn't a gig for tasting samples: you're meant to drink . My drinking began with a half-litre of Ur-Kö , an economically-named beer from the economically