The Shepherds of The Orobie Alps

• Photographer
  Lorenzo Scaramuccia
• Photo Date
  June 2025

Between the Val Brembana and Valtellina (Italy), the return to the mountain pastures has marked the rhythm of summer for centuries. Here, a dense network of small-scale shepherd-cheesemakers carries on an ancient tradition: raw milk, collected twice a day, is transformed into cheese and ricotta in copper cauldrons, using methods passed down from generation to generation.
 This community preserves a knowledge that binds together effort, landscape, and identity: alpine dairying is not just production, but a living heritage of practices, places, and human stories.