Just one Venice, give it to me...

Last weekend I had the absolute pleasure of visiting Venice, it is one of the most wow factor places I have ever been to - I loved it. The place is totally chaotic, falling down and just so desperately beautiful and romantic. It seems to cast its spell on everyone - everywhere you look are couples holding hands and having a damn good snog. Young or old this place makes you feel amazing.

I have been to quite a few cities in Italy, Verona, Florence, Siena, and Rome (which rocks), but Venice totally wins for me. The city is so familiar to the new visitor as it has been used as the set for lots of movies and adverts.

As a child the advert for Walls Cornetto had a massive impact on me. When you are ten years old you LOVE ice cream (I still do) and this particular brand represented the height of totally sophistication for me. On family outings (mainly to stately homes or castles - of which we visited hundreds) my sister and I, as the offer of an ice cream presented itself, used to beg for a Cornetto*. I cannot remember the exact price but they were always the most expensive option from the ice cream van or the sliding glass topped deep freeze at the gift shop. I would estimate that sis and I had a success rate of only ten per cent on scoring the Cornetto. Poor dad would plead poverty and so 'no, no they are too expensive'. But if he was feeling flush we used to get a Cornetto. I can actually recall a memory from more than 30 years ago of one such occasion when we 'won'. I can remember how happy that mint Cornetto made me as I sat on the steps of a castle, wearing my Popeye the Sailor Man t-shirt and favourite grey Hi-Tec trainers in the baking sun. Bliss.

So with this deeply rooted association between ice cream / happy family holidays and Venice it is not really surprising that I got a lump in my throat as we got onto the beautiful wood clad water taxi to speed us to the airport. Venice is an amazing place that is at the top of my list of places to go back to.

The Crumpometer is in the Green - with pink tinges, cooing doves, violin stings and the lapping of the gondolier's paddle in slightly sulphur smelling canal water.

*Baby brother Ian prefered a Mr Whippy which he used to smear over his angelic face