Currently the default "View Cart" template has {$cart_itemcount} as a parameter,
but does not work. It does not look like the parameter is initialized in
action.viewcart.php.

As a quick work around I created a "My cart" template that only has the
{$cart_itemcount} parameter in it and name the template "cart_itemcount"

Then in my View Cart template where I want the item count to be displayed I
insert this: {Cart action='mycart' mycarttemplate='cart_itemcount'}

It works, but it would be cleaner if $cart_itemcount was made available to the
View Cart action.

Thanks!