After I finished the Ice Cream Index I started thinking about places where I've visited churches and how that compared to countries where I've eaten ice cream and, after several attempts, created the following image. It illustrates the relationship between countries where I've visited churches, worshipped in churches, and eaten ice cream.
The week before last I saw an ad for a product that let you record and display how many countries you've visited. This led me to ponder the eternal question of what counts as having "visited" a country. Is it:
And it came to me that the appropriate way to gauge whether or not I personally have truly "visited" a country is if I've eaten ice cream there.
(I'm using "ice cream" as an umbrella term for frozen treats eaten with a spoon or from a cone, regardless of local names or variations in recipe.)
I feel this is a good gauge of whether or not I've "visited" a country, because the longer you've spent in a place, the more opportunity you've had to eat dessert. One could counter that not having eaten ice cream somewhere could just mean you weren't there during ice cream season; the fact that I ate gelato for dinner in Florence in December should make clear that I believe that there is no such thing as Not Ice Cream Season (sell me ice cream all year round, you cowards). To that end, I have categorized all of the countries I've "visited" based on the likelihood I consumed ice cream there. Feel free to use this system in discussing your own travels.
🍦🍦🍦 (three cones): I definitely ate ice cream in this country
the US
Spain
Slovakia
Austria
the UK
Italy
Türkiye
🍦🍦 (two cones): it is possible that I ate ice cream in this country
Portugal
France
Canada
Gibraltar
Croatia
Poland
🍦 (one cone): it is unlikely that I ate ice cream in this country
Hungary
Switzerland
Germany
Ireland
Czech Republic
🥦 (broccoli): I definitely did not eat ice cream in this country
Andorra
Vatican City
Liechtenstein
Morocco
Romania
