Alpeggio Cominelli all'Alpe Zambla

The Cominelli brothers come, they write, from generations of livestock farmers and shepherds. In Parre they have restored their centuries-old farmhouse, the Cascina Zènder in the Mut Bas area, combining the old parts with an automatic milking system with milk transport, a dairy and a cured-meat workshop.

They raise about 50 dairy and beef cattle, partly of the Alpine Brown breed and, gradually, of the Alpine Grey, as well as pigs; with their animals they take part in the sector's fairs in the area. Cheeses and cured meats carry the EC health mark, which allows them to be sold outside Lombardy too. These are the products listed on the website:

The lunch is designed for groups and has to be arranged: the farm invites you to phone 339 2628735 and agree everything with Roberto, and welcomes guests with the products made by the farm. Prices, minimum number of people and days are not published.

The offer has been on the website since June 2023 under the title “Spend a day in the Orobie between the Val del Riso and the Val Serina”: Monte di Zambla lies right between the two valleys, above the pass.

The reference is CAI trail 238, which starts from the Passo di Zambla. From the car park you follow the signposted lane north, pass the shrine of the Madonna di Caravaggio and go down to the Cascine Sinelli; from here the CAI says to carry straight on to the end of the dirt road, take the left-hand path and, leaving trail 223, come out onto the wide pastures of Monte di Zambla, from where the dirt road climbs to the Baita di Monte di Zambla in 15 easy minutes.

The GPS track of trail 238 published by the CAI passes about ten metres from the building OpenStreetMap marks as the Cominellis' Alpe Zambla. At the Cascine Sinelli a lane climbs to the left towards the same hut, but the CAI warns that it is a decidedly longer route. As the crow flies the hut is about 1.7 kilometres from the saddle of the Colle di Zambla.

The farm is based in Parre, in the Val Seriana: the Società agricola Cominelli gives as its address Via Campella 24 and the Cascina Zènder in the Mut Bas area, which you reach, they write, by carrying on for about five minutes to the right just after the Parre cemetery. The website publishes a map with the turns.

For those who do not go up to the alpine pasture there is home delivery throughout the province of Bergamo, with a minimum order of 50 euros: you order by phone, by email at info@agricolacominelli.it or with the form on the website.