Cheese towns, markets and caves
20 places where cheese is made, aged, traded and eaten, with a trail idea for each.
South Asia
Pasture, NepalLangtang and Kyanjin GompaA high Himalayan valley where a yak cheese dairy, set up in the 1950s with Swiss advice, stands beside an old monastery.Pasture, IndiaLeh and the ChangthangLadakh's high desert, where Changpa herders make dried churpe from yak, goat and sheep milk and sell it in the bazaar at Leh.
Europe
Pasture, France, 2 cheesesAubracPasture, Greece, 2 cheesesNaxosThe greenest of the Cyclades, an island of farms and herds whose graviera is the best known island cheese of Greece.Pasture, Switzerland, 2 cheesesValaisThe Rhône valley canton where raclette began: half wheels melted by the fire and scraped onto potatoes.Pasture, France, 1 cheeseBauges mountainsPasture, France, 1 cheeseForez mountainsPasture, Spain, 1 cheesePicos de EuropaPasture, Spain, 1 cheeseRedes Natural ParkPasture, Kosovo, 1 cheeseŠar MountainsPasture, Portugal, 1 cheeseSerra da EstrelaPortugal's highest mountains, where Bordaleira sheep give milk for a soft, thistle-set cheese eaten with a spoon.Pasture, ItalyGavoi and the BarbagiaA shepherds' village in the mountains of Sardinia, a home of Fiore Sardo, the smoked raw-milk pecorino.Pasture, NorwayGudbrandsdalA long Norwegian valley of summer farms where a dairymaid added cream to whey and created brunost, the brown cheese.Pasture, FranceIrati ForestPasture, SpainLa ManchaDon Quixote's high plain of windmills and Manchega sheep, home of Manchego cheese with its basket-weave rind.Pasture, BulgariaRhodope MountainsBulgaria's southern mountains of sheep, pine forest and stone villages, where sirene and kashkaval are part of every meal.Pasture, SloveniaTolmin and the Soča valleyEmerald river country in the Julian Alps, where mountain pastures make Tolminc and Bovec makes a sheep's milk cheese.