Just one cornetto? That’ll be a tenner, signor

I have just been to Venice for the New Year with my family and a quantity of Euros. Each Euro cost us £1.02. Venice is, of course, pricey. It always has been. But you don't have to be a tourist dupe: you can go off-piste.

So for New Year's Eve we booked into Alla Rivetta, a cheap, cheerful family restaurant we had visited a couple of times before. We had: two fish soups, one vegetable soup, three pastas, two ice creams, one tiramisu, a half-litre jug of red table wine, two soft drinks, two coffees.

The bill came to €154. That's £154, give or take a couple of quid.

The next day we went to a little bar (by a canal, oddly) and had: two bottles of prosecco, a plate of salt cod canapés, four beef croquettes and three ham rolls.

The bill came to €160. The eye-watering conversion to sterling was readily effected.

Our suspicions should have been aroused at Gatwick. I recall glimpsing, but not particularly registering, the exchange rate on the chart displayed in Travelex as we trundled by. The figures 0.98 stuck in my mind. What did they mean? What relation did they bear to the 1.42 I remember from my summer holiday?

The penny dropped - actually, it plummeted - when from our apartment on the island of Giudecca (bleak, windswept, don't go there unless you're JG Ballard), we set out on the vaporetto to Venice itself and five stops later arrived at the quayside in St Mark's Square. The total outlay for the 10-minute ride was £26. That's because it cost €6.50 each for two adults and two children. Just to cross the canal.

"We should get some sort of travelcard," my wife said. So we queued up for a laminated swipe called the Imob Venezia. You can get one for three days and go anywhere with it. It cost €31 each (for me, my wife and our eldest) and €18 for our nine-year-old. That, after conversion, is £111. These prices should not be seen as evidence of local inflation - the water-bus tariff has been in place since April 2008. Back then it would have cost you, the eager British tourist, a manageable £78. And €6.50 would have been £4.60.

And that's the point: the pasta that once cost £7 now costs £10. The apartment we had rented at £900 a week - before the plummet - would now cost £1,280.

Back in London, I spoke with a friend who'd just visited Paris. Coffee is now €4 a pop, he reported, and in the British pubs around town there are placards declaring 'Happy Hour Offer! Pints of Beer Only €5!' That's £4 for a coffee, and £5 for a pint.

So, it's over. Ciao, Europe. It was tremendous while it lasted, but gone are the cries of 'Wow, we'd have paid twice that back home!' or 'Dad, these flippers are only three pounds and you get a snorkel with them!' The bazaar is closed. Get ready, Hertfordshire: your souvenir shops may need some attention before the season starts. ·