This Fair was officially born in 1974 on the initiative of the first President of the Pro Loco Dario Formichi, elementary teacher and leading figure of the town.
In the first demonstrations the aim was to create the tourist movement that was not yet as massive in Pienza as it is today. He started playing at Cacio al Fuso between the small streets of the town and also with the ‘Briscola Gigante’ in the main square, with giant cards, a custom then out of habits. Initially there was also a procession of children and adolescents variously dressed as mice with forms of papier-mâché on the theme of the festival and also actual carts paraded in procession.
At that time there were not many dairies and in some cases pecorino was still produced on the farms. The “Cacio di Pienza” is the ancient “caseolus”, that is the small form of the Crete, marketed in Pienza since antiquity in the Fiera di San Matteo.
The Fiera del Cacio has developed in a thematic sense an aspect of the ancient Fair. Over the decades this festival has undergone an evolution that has enriched it with events and has become an appointment for both the people of Pienza and the quarters that organize it with the Pro Loco, both for tourists and for visitors.
In this area there are today six to seven dairy farms that produce high quality of pecorino cheese, famous throughout the world. Moreover, already in the late nineteenth century the Cacio di Pienza arrived at the Paris expo and in America. This is still the case today.