Guided tours and tastings in Calabrian cheese factories

If cheese is your passion, come and taste it at cheese factories in Calabria, directly from producer to consumer!

A land of ancient pastoral tradition, Calabria produces fresh and mature cheeses that give off all the identity of their territory of origin. Amongst PDO and PGI products, Slow Food Presidia and PAT (Traditional Food Products), discover all the typical regional cheeses with an immersive experience in Calabria's cheese factories that offer guided tours and tastings.

Visiting farms and cheese factories in Calabria means coming into contact with a traditional dimension that has been able to renew itself, transferring the identity of the shepherds to new chains of excellence.

An original way to spend a day in nature, with the family and children, amidst didactic farm activities and moments of conviviality with Calabrian "màstri casàri".  

Among the cheese factories in Calabria, those in the provinces of Cosenza and Catanzaro draw on the freshness of the Sila pastures to produce some of Calabria's best-loved cheeses.

Fed in the green meadows of the Sila National Park, the herds yield aromatic milk of the highest quality, the same milk from which one of the ‘musts’ among Calabrian dairy products is made: the very sweet Caciocavallo Silano PDO.

There is nothing better than a taste of grilled Caciocavallo Silano after a day's trekking or horseriding through the woods, served on a slice of toasted homemade bread and a glass of local wine, in one of the many Calabrian cheese factories open for visits.

Here are some of the cheese factories in Cosenza and its province that offer a tasting service, guided tours and "didactic farms", i.e. fun activities involving both adults and children:

• The Caseificio Paese in Spezzano della Sila (in the ski resort of Camigliatello Silano) offers a daily visit to the cowshed during milking and to the cheese factory during milk processing, with tasting. School groups can participate in educational workshops on milking, calf suckling and the production of mozzarella and ricotta cheese.
• Fattoria Didattica Biò, in Casali del Manco (Serra Pedace locality), offers children's courses dedicated to dairy farming, with milking and herding, plus a day on the farm dedicated to adults.
• In Montalto Uffugo, there are two different realities, Fattoria Didattica La Locanda dei Cocomeri and Fattoria Didattica Garrafa, which offer an educational tour of the cheese factory and biogas production, and school tours on the farm, respectively.
• Fattoria Didattica Masseria Fonte di Maroglio, in Castrovillari, at the foot of the Pollino National Park, offers an ‘At school in the farm’ experience with shearing and milking workshops.  

Among the cheese factories in Catanzaro and province that offer an immersive day is the Rotiroti Educational Farm, which in Cardinale acquaints its guests with the entire milk production and processing chain.

Anyone passing through the area of Sila in Crotone must absolutely taste an excellence produced by cheese factories in Calabria: the renowned Pecorino di Crotone PDO.

Among the world-famous branded cheeses, Pecorino Crotonese PDO unites the Sila mountains and the splendid Costa dei Saraceni in its aroma and flavour.

This is a hard, semi-cooked cheese made exclusively from whole sheep's milk. The flocks graze in the Sila fields from September to June, yielding fresh, aromatic milk, to which kid rennet paste is added. After salting, the typical basket-shaped cheeses are left to mature between 60 and 90 days in slightly ventilated rooms or in sandstone caves. 

Among the cheese factories in Crotone and the Marchesato area that provide the opportunity to discover the production processes, taste and purchase typical cheeses is Masseria De Tursi.

Located in Strongoli (locality of Murgie), in one of the most interesting and evocative SCIs (Site of Community Importance) in the province, it maintains unchanged the methods of rural pastoralism and the ancient traditions of grazing, offering guided tours with tasting (booking required).

Another type of Calabrian pecorino cheese known throughout the world is the excellent Pecorino del Monte Poro PDO, made with prime milk from the pastures of Mount Poro, in the province of Vibo Valentia.

The mountain from which it comes is one of the most evocative peaks in the province, with a special microclimate due to its overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Costa degli Dei. These are the characteristics that make Poro Pecorino unmistakable: a sheep's milk cheese to which kid or lamb rennet is added, available fresh (from 20 to 60 days), semi-matured (from 2 to 6 months) and matured (from 6 to 24 months). 

We conclude our journey among the cheese factories in Calabria with a visit to the cheese factories of Reggio Calabria and the Aspromonte National Park where an authentic rarity is produced, already a Slow Food Presidium and a PAT (Traditional Food Product) label.

This is the renowned Caprino d'Aspromonte, an aromatic cheese made from kid curd. Transferred to the typical reed fuscèlle, where it is pressed by hand, the wheel is decorated with ancient agro-pastoral symbols of Greek origin, making it a true work of art.

Another feather in the cap of the Calabrian cheese factories that fall within this province is Caciocavallo di Ciminà, a Slow Food Presidium.

Ciminà is a municipality in the Locride area where a ‘’two-heads‘’ caciocavallo is produced: a small, elongated cheese, which is coagulated with cow's milk while still raw, almost always with natural kid rennet.

Caciocavallo di Ciminà is eaten very fresh, within a few days of production, perfect for melting on the grill.

In the province of Reggio Calabria, it is possible to book guided tours with tastings in some of Calabria's cheese factories of excellence:

• Barone Macrì, in Gerace (Contrada Modi locality) is one of the most renowned farms in the sector, offering guided tours with tastings and the possibility of an overnight stay in a farmhouse with restaurant. It breeds semi-wild Italian Frisona cattle, Sardinian-bred sheep and Maltese-bred goats for the production of a wide variety of cheeses, including yoghurt made from goat's milk.
• Sapori Antichi d'Aspromonte, in Canolo, is among the cheese factories in Calabria that offer an educational itinerary for children and young people and the possibility of paranzeria in the adjoining braceria.  
• Fattoria Didattica Masseria della Piana, in the Condidoni countryside, specialises in the "Milk Route" and offers the possibility of visiting the farm and the annexed biogas plant, participating in educational workshops and having lunch in the on-site restaurant.