Le Cornelle Animal Park

LE CORNELLE
Via Cornelle, 16
24030 Valbrembo (Bergamo)
tel: 035.527640

As daddy is still on vacation until 3 october, we have decided to take Momochan to Le Cornelle Animal Park so we can have sone time togather doing something nice ;)
This park is really cute, has many and many animals who live in quite large spaces which looks like their own original places. You can find white lions and tigers, rhynos, gyraffs, elephants, suricata, hippos, birds, monkeys, giant turtles, penguins and other animals.
Momochan liks this park so much, we have already been there many times and we will come back tomorrow with daddy and make a lot of photos ;)

Livigno the next day

This morning we get up early as we want to wonder around.
I want to show Sampei the Dairy and Momo wants to show her daddy the place, while granny wants to buy some special cheese and daddy wants to have special breakfast ;)
So, after a hot shower, (here degrees are low outside compared to Milano), and a quick pre-breakfast with chocko rice flakes and yogurt, we get out and take the car to drive for the 2 km to reach the center.
As we arrive to the dairy, (fortunately there is a way to get there with the car, because last summer we arrived by feet just taking a walk but today weatherr is not so nice ... and there is always fear rain to come so is best to take car to move everywhere) daddy soon discovers he likes that place, you can eat for midday or have breakfast, you can reserve and see how they produce cheese and butter from a big window or directly inside, you can buy their products and in summer you can stay outside take sun and eat ice cream they produce fresh every day ;)
We buy some fresh yogurts and some cheese and we all take a coffee, it is the only thing I have not taken from home and we do not have at the apartment ;)
After the dairy we have to decide what to do, we are in the center again and .... at a certain point a yummy smell arrives at our noses .... the Bivio Hotel has outside a man who is cooking polenta, and let people taste it.
We get near and taste the polenta, WOW is so tasty !!! GNAM GNAM so in a second wee decide to have lunch at Bivio and we get inside, we sit and order some dishes: polenta with sausage and mushrooms for granny and me, with pizzoccheri for daddy and for Momochan potatoes and sausages ;) SLURRRRP
Theese are all tipical dishes from Valtellina the region where we are, also here we can eat bresaola (a special raw salted spiced meat dried) and the tipical cheese.

(AGGIUNGI FOTO DEL BIVIO E DEL RAGAZZO CHE FA LA POLENTA E DEL PRANZO PRIMA DELLE FOTO DI MOMO AI GIOCHI)

After lunch wee wonder around for a couple of hours, granny wants to buy  some items and I need some chokolate ;)
As soon as we have finished I am deadly tired about walking everywhere so we come back home.
Justside our apartment there are some kids play, a balance, a slider, a small house, ball, and Momo wants to play so while granny and daddy are having rest inside the apartment, I am togather with Momochan outside playing, well, she is playing while I am taking fotos and sitting on a huge tree trunk so wide that to hug it you would need two people ;)
It is fantastic how here in the mountains kids parks are always clean, you do not know who is in charge to care about them but they are always perfect, no mud around, balance and sliders and toys are always clean, no trash on the ground, for crazy that it could be, you could go play there also with the sunday fest dress that you would never dirty ! absolutely nothing in common with the park in our town.
In my opinion, here there are some things alike Japan, first as I said, everything clean and accessible, second you hardly can find trash containers around (where the hell do the Livigno people throw trash ??), kids go to school alone, bicicle, helmet and rucksack on the shoulders, people are polite and last but not least, if you need to go toilet you will always find it clean as the one your home !

Livigno apartment

Through internet we have found a cute apartment to book online, we can go Livigno and take granny with us because the apartment is bigger enough, cute, comfortable and with kitchen so we can take food with us and not buy anything in town.
Once arrived in Livigno after lunch, the first thing we do is goint to the agency to take the keys, agency is in the center while apatment is just outside, 2 km from the center but still in town.
Our little house is composed by a little genkan, small open kitchen, a big window to see the mountains outside and the table and chairs, a sofa we can turn into bed for granny in the night and a chimeny.
Behind there is a cute bathroom with washtub, hooks and hangerrs, bigger thatn the one we have at home, and a bedroom with a double bed and a double closet for dresses and luggage.

Livigno

This morning we are leaving for Livigno, daddy is on holiday until 3 october so I have decided that Momochan can stay home and not go to kindergarden until daddy return to work so they can have time togather ;)
Momochan obviously was happy about the idea to have vacation for some time, stay with daddy and go to the mountains, so wee start this morning with our breakfast at our preferred coffe shop and after a quick shopping at the supermarket to get food for two days to take away with us, milk, butter, yogurt and cereals for breakfast, chiken meat and veggies.
After supermarket we have to go to granny because she comes with us so while we make breakfast and go supermarket she has more time to prepare luggage.
The apartment has an entrance with a kitchen and a livingroom with a sofa bed for granny, a bathroom (sooooo bigger than the one we have at home and with bathtub, YEEEEEEEE) and a bedroom for us with a double bed.

At midday we arrive at the same place we stop everytime we go Livigno, a big shopping center with a McDonalds.
As recently we have seen in the cinema The Smurfs 2, Mc Donalds has new Happy Meals with smurfs inside and Momo would like to have ;)
After lunch in an hour time we arrive, I have to say I cannot wait to go to the Foto Gino store to take my new cell phone. This small holiday has three main aim: let Momo and daddy stay togather, let daddy relax and also to buy my new cell phone as the old one has definitely ..... dead !!!  ;)
So, we have to go first to the apartment (see our apartment how it looks like) and take from the car all our luggage, then we go to the center to the foto and phone store and we buy my cell, after we go to our preferred supermarket the Cooperativa, where we can find chocolate, liquors, bresaola, and many other foods special from Livigno and of course,a coffee inside our preferred place that is Hotel Bivio, a cute place in the main road in the center of the town, it is an hotel, has a coffee corner where you can have snacks or eat for lunch and dinner and a downstairs zone for hearing music and take cocktails ;)

For evening meal we are back home, at our new apartment for theese two days.
Daddy is cooking in the little kitchen, some japanese pasta (soba ??) while Momo wants to see Ironman 3 on tv togather with granny so after meal we open the big sofa and once washed and dressed with pijama we all see the film but we have had a looong day so before end Momochan fall asleep, we take her to our bedroom, granny take possesion of her bed and Sampei and I play with cell phone and pc HEHEHE

wakaba restaurant

Today daddy has proposed to eat outside and we have decided to go eating japanese ;)
He knows a place where you can pay a sum per person (kids pay half) and eat all you want, the restaurant is called Wakaba.
Momochan was enthusiat of going out restaurant with daddy and also she wanted to demonstrate how she likes, whenever we go restaurant she always eat everything, while when we are at home she needs more than and hour to finish her meal and is veeeeeery slow.
Food is not bad here, Sampei knows that place because in the place where he works, often when they want to get out eating alltogather they go to Wakaba and they all love eating there ;)
We have come here several times and always we eat good, this time I wanted to try ramen and I have to say it is the only food I will never try again here, absolutely untasty and noodles were too cooked !
I love tempura, the potatoes korokke and the chiken karaage which is fried chiken ;) YUMMY

a cute small vacation ;)

Since we cannot go vacation to seaside or mountains or elsewhere this year, I have organized for Momochan a special two-days-trip to Turin.
The idea is to take her to some places to see animals, take a bath in a swimming pool as it will be really warm, go to see some interesting place, eating sandwiches and chicken nuggets, realx, see new things, learn something, see something new, make something new different from usual.
Giving a look at internet I found a cute solution that can contain all of this:

• ZOOM TORINO BIO-PARK
• ZOOM TORINO BOLDER BEACH penguin pool
• MC DONALDS to eat
• HOTEL to sleep at night in Turin
• EGYPTIAN MUSEUM for mummies and pharaos

Zoom Torino biopark is a cute animal park where Momochan can admire animals such as tigers, owls, eagles, gorillas, flamingoes, monkeys and many others, relax giving a look at Bolder Beach penguins and bath in the big swimming pool (not seaside but something really similar with white carribean sand shore and blue water), eating at McDonald's her favourite Happy Meal, sleeping in an nearest hotel for the night (she loves hotels and restaurants and of course she loves vacation and new places), and the day after going to visit the Egiptian Museum in the center of Turin city, since she has studied in kindergarden the Verdi's "Aida" so that she can give a look at real egyptian mummies, pharaos and many ancient items and way of living so she can tell in september to her mates and maybe have a cute book to read and take school ;)
We will have to prepare a small Ikea suitcase (trolley) a dress change for Momochan and I, swimmsuit for both for Bolder Beach and a big towel, toiletries, her plush cat, bottle and dummy (she doesn not use any more but she still needs under the pillow)

navigli with the bike ;)

Today we have gone to Navigli with the bicicle.

Before starting the little trip we go to our preferred coffee shop, mommy has a coffee and Momochan has a small apricot croissant.
As soon as we finish, we pay and start or little trip to Milan, about 22 km from our home.
As soon as we arrive is already time to eat so we go to a place we already know since much time and order two giant hot dog.

After the meal we take a walk around, the Navigli (click to know what it is) today are nearly deserted, nobody around and it is terribly hot. At 16.00 PM we decide is best to come back and on the road towards home we stop here and there to pick some flowers but as temperature is over 30 degrees flowers risk to die before arriving home, we manage to keep them the fresher possible with wet towels and a small bottle and finally we arrive home. I put immediately the flowers in frozen water and put in a corner where there is sufficient light but no sun and little by little while we are showering, the flowers live again ;)
When we got the dresses off to make shower we noticed we had bronzed a little: we have plenty of signs and skin is darker here and there !!!

zoom torino bio-park

I have recently discovered (just because it has recently opened) a new bio-park in Turin city, 150 km from Milan where we live. There are many animals and it is divided into zones: Madagascar, Serengeti and Africa, Petra, Sumatra and Bolder Beach to see the penguins ;)
Visiting Zoom will be an extraordinary experience for Momochan, if someone needs there is also the possibility to have biologist and ornitologist who will inform and tell everything about the animals and the birds to have an instructive and amusing experience both for childs and adults ;)
Inside the bio-park there is an area with an enormous swimming pool (Bolder Beach), you have to bring from home a swimsuit and a towel and you can relax like in a carribean place: white soft sand, blue water and the cutest thing is that from the pool you can see the penguins (it just cost 4,00 euro more in add to the normal bio-park ticket).

HOTEL + BIOPARK
Going Zoom bio-park there is also the possibility to buy a special packet which permits you to have a voucher for the park and together an hotel bedroom for the night at a small price (give a look to have more infos about hotel + voucher)

Hotel Diplomatic****
Via Cernaia, 42, 10122 Torino
Tel +39 011 561.24.44 | Fax +39 011 540.472
Email info@hotel-diplomatic.it

Art Hotel Guala
Piazza Pietro Francesco Guala, 143
10135 Torino
Email: info@hotelguala.it
tel: +39 011 3179633 

To eat in the evening before going to sleep at the hotel, a good idea can be eating Happy Meals at McDonald's, (a couple of Happy Meals is just less than 10,00 euros) so here it is a link to find the nearest one ;)

RAPACI DI PETRA - gufo africano, allocco, aquila pettonero, falco, caracara

FATTORIA AFRICANA - lama, bue watusso, asino somalo, dromedario

MADAGSCAR - pellicani, lemuri, tartarughe giganti, fenicotteri

SUMATRA - tigri, antilopi, gibboni, istrici, oche egiziane, cervi chital

BOLDER BEACH - la baia dei pinguini

ZOOM TORINO
Strada Piscina 36
10040 Cumiana (Torino)
tel: 011-9070419

SERVIZI
Il Parco dispone di parecchi posti dove mangiare o bere bibite e caffè: Zula cafè (ristorante self sevice e bar), Mora Mora Pizza, Pelican Restaurant, Pavillon Cafè, Jungle Break
Zona Ranger Camp: è un angolo per bambini dove giocare, ci sono scivoli, la casa del ranger, una teleferica, ponti sospesi e altalene
Negozio dove comprare i souvenir del bioparco

COME ARRIVARE:
IN AUTO: imboccare la tangenziale Torino-Pinerolo fino all’uscita Piscina. Da qui seguire le indicazioni per Cumiana. Dopo circa 4 km troverai il bioparco ZOOM.
IN TRENO: da Porta Nuova prendere il treno che va a Pinerolo e scendere alla stazione di Piscina.

BIGLIETTI
OPEN (validi qualunque giorno)
adulti: 18,50 euro fixed day
bambini fino 12 anni e over 65 anni: 14,50 euro
BOLDER BEACH - con 4,00 euro in più a persona si può stare in piscina (portare costume e asciugamano) e mangiare un gelato o un caffè al bar della oasi ;) (read more about Bolder Beach)
GIORNO FISSO (validi il giorno che si entra)
adulti 14,50 euro
bambini fino 12 anni e over 65 anni: 11,50 euro

BOLDER BEACH - a cute carribean pool

BOLDER BEACH - look at the penguins from the pool !

BOLDER BEACH - cute for the entire family ;)

BOLDER BEACH - relax coffee corner