Picture the world's best cheeses. Proud producers telling you their story, describing landscapes and cows they know by name. Tasting the place that they come from. Picture cooks from around the world, expertly crafting dishes that enhance these magnificent cheeses.

All happening over four days throughout the lovely streets of Bra, the small town in Piedmont and the birthplace of Slow Food, which transforms into an open-air cheese marketplace for the occasion.

At every corner, you can learn something, taste something, debate, compare, listen to music, try artisan beers or wines to accompany cheeses, and meet people from around the world.

You will never see cheese in the same way again.

This is how this biannual event, Cheese, the oldest of Slow Foods food events, has changed the world of cheesemaking during the past 16 years: defending small-scale producers, protecting great original, authentic flavors from all over the world, restoring the tradition of raw milk and raw milk cheese against tough and hyper-hygienic regulations and market trends.

Cheese has played an important role in today's recognition of raw milk as an essential part of gastronomic quality.

Once again, the latest edition, Cheese 2011 illustrates and explores the complexity of knowledge, needs, problems and resources linked to dairy products, turning the spotlight onto the three pillars on which dairy quality rests: milks, crafts and places.

Come and see for yourself.

Where what, when. Click for more information on Cheese 2011.