Discover Cheese Making Secrets in Italy and France
Taste a variety of locally made cheeses at our favorite trailside hut on Seiser Alm
Europe is famous for its cheeses, nowhere more so than France and Italy. These two nations alone produce over 3 million tons of cheese each year in a wide variety of flavors, textures and aromas. In many regions a single type of cheese dominates production, as is the case for Comté cheese in France’s Jura region where the Transju’ Worldloppet takes place. Elsewhere, small farms make many types of cheese depending on the time of year or which livestock are producing milk.
Lumi guests have the opportunity to learn about how cheeses are made on several trips, including cheese tastings, often paired with regional wines or beers. Whether you’d like to tour a local farm in Cavalese and learn their secrets to traditional cheesemaking or discover a historic French fortress now used to age thousands of wheels of cheese, your next Lumi ski trip to Europe is bound to feature a delicious cultural exploration off the trail.
A New Cheesemaking Experience In Cavalese
2027 brings an exciting new addition to Lumi’s trips in Northern Italy: a cheesemaking tour at a local farm in Cavalese at the center of the region’s budding Slow Food movement. Everything the farm produces is organic and follows traditional practices to ensure the land remains healthy and the livestock are treated with respect. Our host, Martina, and her family go the extra mile to live as close to nature as possible while also producing some of the finest cheeses in Trentino.
Lumi’s trip leaders were clued into Martina’s farm by our hotel partner in Cavalese, who serves their farm-to-table cheeses as part of the daily breakfast for guests. After tasting some of her flavorful cheeses, Lumi organized a farm tour, cheesemaking how-to and beer & cheese pairing for our guests in Cavalese last winter. Beyond meeting the cows, you’ll get to know the next generation farmers rekindling old traditions in a community where agriculture has been a central facet for nearly 1000 years. Find this engaging cultural experience on Lumi’s upcoming Marcialonga & König Ludwig Lauf and Dolomitenlauf & Marcialonga trip.
Skida Inspiration
Skida founder Corinne Prevot joined Lumi in Italy last winter and got a little something extra from the experience. Always on the lookout for fabric inspiration for Skida’s next hat release, Corinne spotted an appealing fabric in an unlikely place: the tablecloth beneath our homemade cheeses!
Exploring a French Cheese Fortress
Near the community of Les Rousses can be found one of the stranger historical success stories in the Alps. Fort Des Rousses, originally built to defend the French/Swiss border in the 1800s, eventually became obsolete and fell into disrepair. Not wanting to see their community’s history fade away, the region’s cheesemakers came up with a novel solution: use the fort’s massive stone halls to age over 100,000 wheels of Comté cheese.
The stable temperatures, humidity and darkness found under the fort are the perfect environment for storing and ripening cheese. Guests on Lumi’s France Transju’ trip have the opportunity to tour this special culinary treasure horde, surrounded by the strong aromas of aged cheese emanating from floor to ceiling.
Ski the Seiser Alm plateau straight from your hotel
Hand Making Ricotta on Seiser Alm
The Seiser Alm plateau not only has some of Italy’s finest cross-country skiing – it’s also home to one of our favorite trailside huts in the Alps. Featuring imaginative cocktails, hearty post-ski meals and a delicious hay soup made from grasses and herbs found on the plateau, each menu item is crafted using locally sourced ingredients from around the region. Our host, Franz, loves to introduce guests to the art of making fresh ricotta during our visit.
Courtney Dauwalter shows off some homemade ricotta cheese from her time on Seiser Alm with Lumi this past winter
Italian ricotta is naturally a little sweeter than American ricotta varieties owing to differences in its production and source milk. Once the ricotta lesson is complete, there’s only one thing left to do: pair it with made-in-house bread to see how it turned out. Each of Lumi’s Seefeld & Seiser Alm Sight-Skiing trips takes part in this alpine hut experience before skiing back to our trailside accommodations overlooking the iconic Schlern formation. It’s one of our favorite ways to spend an afternoon, even with pro-athletes like Courtney Dauwalter who stopped by the hut with Lumi this past winter.
Would you like to learn how to make traditional European cheeses while skiing some of the best trails in the Alps? Join Lumi Experiences for a cheese making tour at a Slow Foods farm in Italy or enjoy the sheer scale of a fortress full of cheese in France. There is still limited space on Lumi’s Seefeld & Seiser Alm trips next January, our France Transju’ trip and our 11-day Marcialonga & König Ludwig Lauf trip to Italy, Austria and Germany. Reach out to reservations@lumiexperiences.com for a detailed trip itinerary or to reserve your spot.
See you on the trail,
Garrott Kuzzy
garrott@lumiexperiences.com
Founder & Olympian, Lumi Experiences
Enjoy a bowl of hay soup made with ingredients harvested from around the Seiser Alm plateau