Butterflies, hiking, donkeys and … land tubing? Our visit to Parco Monte Serra in Viagrande, Sicily.
Sicily is gorgeous this time of year, full of flowers and greenery everywhere. It also isn’t oppressively hot AND hardly anything is on fire! Basically, it’s the perfect time to be outside, so we’ve been celebrating by trying to do that as much as possible. This past week, that meant a visit to Parco Monte Serra.
Parco Monte Serra is a roughly 75-acre reserve around an “ancient horseshoe-shaped volcanic crater,” according to its website. It is located in Viagrande, a town about 25 minutes from Catania (and 35 from Marinai, for my local people). It makes an excellent outing with kids for an afternoon, whether you are interested in hiking, biking, visiting some butterflies or land tubing/skiing (more on that last one in a minute).
Viagrande’s Volcano Museum is also right next to the park.
Getting to Parco Monte Serra
I’d suggest putting Casa Delle Farfalle into your GPS for driving purposes. I tried just “Parco Monte Serra,” but Google tried to send me somewhere weird. Once you get there, you’ll drive up a fairly steep hill, pull into a parking lot on the left and pay a guy 2 euro when he approaches you (this might not happen until the end if you are there early). You can walk to everything from there.
Hiking at Parco Monte Serra
We didn’t actually head to Parco Monte Serra with a specific plan to hike, but my kids spotted a few stairs that led to a path and then more stairs and … one thing led to another. It was too gorgeous not to continue! 
Most of the path was well-marked, and seemed to go all over the place. We ended up opting to start climbing some stairs we found, which led us up one of the big hills. This part was a touch rough in places, but nothing a 5.5- and 3.5-year-old couldn’t handle. The main thing is keeping a tight hold on them in places where there is a bit of a drop-off. And also making sure you don’t fall off yourself if you also happen to be a clumsy adult like me.
The higher we got, the more incredible the view became. And that was even with it not being a particularly clear day. One days when the mountain view is unobstructed, I’m sure it is even more beautiful.
We didn’t reach the absolute highest point we could because Owen needed to turn around, but that didn’t stop Fiona from trying to continue the hike solo. ‘It’ll just take a SECOND,’ she says as she tries to rush away from me atop what is basically a mountain. This kid is honestly trying to kill me!
We took what seemed to be a more indirect route toward the top of the hill. As we were leaving, we spotted *the* stairs that people talk about in Parco Monte Serra, which we missed on the way in. Um. I wish I’d gotten a better picture because they looked fairly intimidating from a distance — just straight up the hill! We’ll have to tackle them one of these days though, because why not?
Apparently there are also places where you can bike at Parco Monte Serra, which would be a nice outing one of these days since the idea of riding a bike on Sicilian roads terrifies me.
Land tubing/skiing at Parco Monte Serra
So, before Parco Monte Serra I had no idea this was even a thing. Land tubing. It is exactly like snow tubing, but instead of snow there is just some mesh stuff covering the hill. Pretty smart considering only Mount Etna gets any real snow around here.
Basically, the attendant wets the bottom of the rubber inner tube with something that appeared to be soapy water, you plop down in the middle and boom — down the mountain you go. It looked fast enough to be fun, but not fast enough to make you think you are hurtling to your death. Which seems like the right mix to me, honestly.
At the end of the ride, there was a kind of moving walkway to help you get back up the hill. Pretty slick!
To ride, children must be 4 years old and must go independently, as sitting on a parent’s lap is not allowed. While it has a large sign proclaiming that it is open all year round, it seems to be limited to the morning hours. We were there on a Saturday and it closed for riposo (about 1:30 p.m.), and we were told it wouldn’t open again until Sunday morning.
You also seem to be able to land ski (!!) on the slope there, if the website is to be believed. I’d certainly like to see that, though I doubt I’d be any less awful at land skiing than I was at regular skiing.
Butterfly House (Casa delle Farfalle) at Parco Monte Serra
Ah, the Casa Delle Farfalle. If you are visiting Parco Monte Serre with kids, checking out the Butterfly House is an excellent idea. I think even babies would get a kick out of seeing all the butterflies fluttering around.
We didn’t visit this time, but I’ve written about the Casa Delle Farfalle before. We had a great time on our visit last fall, where a small group of us received a brief tour from one of the guides.
Admission is 5 euro for adults, 3.50 for children older than 4 and free for those younger. They also had a couple package deals; one adult and two kids, for instance, was 10 euro. The Casa Delle Farfalle does close for riposo, so I’d suggest getting there in the morning before the last admission at 12:30.
Playground, picnics and (maybe) a petting zoo at Parco Monte Serra
If you are headed to the Parco Monte Serra with kids, there is a small playground right in front of the butterfly house that you can check out. It seemed a bit lame to me compared to our favorite parks in Pedara and Aci Bonaccorsi, but it has swings, slides and some jungle-gym equipment to climb on. Naturally, this was Fi’s favorite part.
If you are going to Parco Monte Serre with kids, I’d suggest packing a picnic! There are a ton of picnic tables all around where you could sit and have a nice lunch. You can also reserve areas of the park for parties — we saw several parties while we were there on a Saturday morning.
There is also a mini-farm on the property, where you can see a donkey, goats, chicken, geese, etc. I’m not sure whether it is meant to be a petting zoo or is used for demonstrations or anything, but we popped on through while we were there as well.
Overall, if you are looking for somewhere to hike or for an outing with the kids, I’d highly recommend checking our this place!
