The cacio piacentino was famous since the sixteenth century, when the merchants of Parma and Milan bought it in quantity to then resell it on the markets of Florence and Lyon. But the origin of grana cheese seems to date back to the beginning of the year one thousand: the first architects were perhaps the Cistercian monks of the Abbey of Chiaravalle Piacentina.

The production expanded over the centuries to different areas of the Po Valley: this cheese was initially produced to preserve excess milk; Its excellent conservation capacity and its unmistakable flavor, favored its development and diffusion, to the point that the practice of transformation of milk into Grana became a pillar of the agricultural economy.

Today, while the other provinces of the region are devoted to Parmigiano Reggiano, Piacenza is the only one that produces Grana Padano PDO.

Grana Padano from Piacenza has unique characteristics: it is sweet, compact when cut, uniform in color and has no holes. The crust should be thin, from 4 to 8 millimeters.

Finally, it must be seasoned from a minimum of 9 months to a maximum of 24 months.