i'm here in the lakes district of northern piedmont alumni to check out some of the traditional cheeses from this region first stop i'm off to visit carlo and giovanni gefanti a family of affiners who specialise in selecting traditional cheeses and maturing them to perfection here we are in a real caves because it's underground it means that we are able in this place to have temperature and humidity that are all the time the same during all the year in this cave we can find a lot of different italian cheeses we have some parmigiano reggiano for example that we age really for a long time minimum four years old for do that we select first of all the producer and then we select the production of the producer normally our choice is on the month of october november and december winter period why because it's the period when the milk is more regular regular means that is not too much warm the weather the animals the cows are more quiet and is more easy not to have problems in the cheese so this is why for me for me that kind of job this level of aging we choose this kind of parmigiano region the third thing is to clear clear why these are living cheeses are very important yes is information about the kind of the cheese this is trentin grana do you see here you have a place where cheese is made trento and this is the number the producer each producer has a number this is the indication that it is and also date of the fabrication september 2009 and you are cutting the cheese blocking the cheese we need to preserve this information yes this information is easier to preserve than this we select only the beta produced during the summer period in the val gerald area is victor valle del vito is produced with eighty percent of cow and twenty percent of goat only during the summer period again for this kind of cheese we have choose the right place inside our caves because each area each corner have his own temperature and his own humidity that we have to manage and we managed it following the characteristics of the cheese this kind of cheese is not cutted in this case we will broken the cheese in the cheese texture you have the way at first we make an half wheel and this is the first indication to the cheese where we wish that it will broken now the cheese news where we will begin to broken the texture and we will broken the texture here all these cheeses are also managed in this cave from us every day in what way we turn the cheese because if the cheese remain all the time on the same face the problem is that the face on the top become dry and the face on the bottom remain very wet so you have to turn the cheese and in the meantime when we turn the cheese we clean the cheese we manage the cheese with water and salt white water and salt because all the cheese that you see here are produced with milk rennet and salt it means that water and salt are part of the cheese the oil give us the possibility to maintain the skin of the cheese and how often would you do this for this chase it's a daily job we have to sit to it every day i have to be here taking care like the way i do take care of my kids so it's something you have to do often you have to come here and then take care of the cheeses and now we make like like the torreira he have to broken here yes the board yes and when we have cut this this part of the wheel we have already explained to the cheese where he must broke the cheese now is broken alone now we go only a little more in in the heart and no more in the heart voila this is the only way to cut such a cheese it was a real privilege to watch carlo gefanti at work like this join us for part two as he breaks down the cheese into wedges and we learn more about the art of affinage down in their cheese cave