Each member brought the milk produced by their own cows to the dairy every day and had the “right to their turn”, i.e., to process it into cheese and butter in proportion to the milk supplied.

On the edge of the village there is another “Museum of Ancient Crafts”. Its old dairy architecture preserved intact it showcases original objects and tools specific to traditional milk processing.

Like those in Armo and Moerna, the turn dairy in Persone was built in the early 1900s by dairy members, with the aid of the Austrian province, who provided materials and labour in proportion to the number of cattle they owned.

The products made in the dairy were transported to the private home of the “turner” who had processed them to mature. The dairy was mainly used in the winter and spring, when the cows were housed in the village barns. Milking took place in the cowshed and the milk was taken to the dairy, poured into buckets, weighed on the entry scales and recorded. The milk processing areas are on the ground floor. In the east-facing room, the milk was left to ‘cream’, in the other it was processed and made into cheese.

Perhaps because of the cool microclimate compared to other dairies in Val Vestino, the milk in Persone was simply left to cool open to the air and not in special cooling tanks with running water.

It was used by its members up until 1998 when, now in disuse, it was bought by the town council which restored it, keeping its tools and structure intact.

It is managed by the Val Vestino Ecomuseum and can be visited on the days it is open to the public and on Sunday afternoons during the summer.