About Giulia Bertoli
I am Giulia Bertoli, a food and wine guide in Parma. I was born in Langhirano, the prosciutto town in the hills south of the city, and my grandfather was a casaro, a cheesemaker, at a small dairy in those hills. This site is where I write down what I tell visitors about seeing Parmigiano Reggiano made.
What my grandfather’s job taught me
I grew up knowing one rule about dairies: you go at dawn or you see nothing. The cheese is made in the morning. The moment people come for, when the cheesemakers lift the curd out of the copper vat in linen cloths and cut it in two, happens early. Arrive at 11 and you will see the brining room, the aging warehouse and quite possibly a video, which is not the same thing at all. Most of the advice on this site comes back to that clock. What time to be at a dairy.
The first thing I tell people
You do not need a tour to see Parmigiano Reggiano made. The Consorzio runs its own dairy booking page, where visits with a tasting cost about €15–35. You book ahead, because every dairy I have checked requires it, and you get yourself there. From Parma station, line 23 reaches one of them, Caseificio Ugolotti, in about 15 minutes. I name it as an example of booking direct, not as a recommendation over any other dairy. The direct route, in full.
Why I still put people on tours
Most dairies are out in the country. A local guide on the Rick Steves forum put it at “at least 90%” of them being far from any bus or train stop, which is one person’s estimate and matches mine. If you have no car, getting to a working dairy by 9am is the hard part, and it is the part a tour solves. So when someone staying in Parma without a car asks me, I usually tell them to book a tour with pickup and accept that they are paying for the ride. I say that on every tour page here, along with which tours include transport and which leave you to arrange it. The tours that start from Parma.
How I check what is on this site
The production facts come from the disciplinare, the official production rules, and from the Consorzio’s own pages and FAQ. Visit prices and times come from the booking page and the dairies’ own sites. The rules on taking cheese home come from government pages. Tour prices, ratings and review counts were read on 28 September 2026, and they move.
Where two sources disagree, I print both rather than the tidier one. The Consorzio itself gives two figures for the milk that goes into a wheel, 550 litres and about 520, so you get both. Where I could not confirm something, a taxi fare from Parma for instance, I leave it out. I do not recommend one tour company over another, and in the reviews I write “the operator” and mean it. How I read the ratings.
What I am not
I am not the Consorzio, not a dairy and not a tour operator. I do not sell visits and I cannot book you into a dairy. When you are ready to book a tour, I send you to GetYourGuide, and often enough I tell you to book the dairy yourself instead. If something here is wrong or has changed since I checked it, write to me.