Loreto Pacitti was stumped. He was desperate. The pecorino producer couldn't sell one of Italy's most famous cheeses. No one could. Covid had closed restaurants and public markets, skyrocketed production costs and curbed public spending. Worried his cheese would spoil, he did what his ancestors did hundreds of years ago.

He buried his cheese in a cave. "During the lockdown I lost almost everything," said Pacitti, owner of La Caciosteria di Casa Lawrence in the village of Picinisco in the Lazio region. "But then because of this system [of burying cheese] I recovered everything."