As with many inventions it is difficult to say who was the first creator, but one narrative deffinitely talks about an explorer, Marco Polo, carrying the idea of frozen ices back to Italy from China, where they knew about the values of harvesting and storing ice and freezing things for thusands of years.
Prior to Marco Polo was a natural cooler already existing in India and Persia with exotically flavoured syrups. Finally Arab traders travelled and settled the habit firmly with the Sicilians, who later perfected the art.