pointer from stl list iterator?

[Bozebo]

Hi, firstly I will show an example application that represents my issue:

class cell{
  public:
    float top,left,bottom,right;

//other methods and members

};

list<cell> cellList;
list<cell>::iterator cellIter;

//finds the cell that a point is in and returns a pointer to the cell
cell* findCell(float x,float y){
  for(cellIter = cellList.begin();cellIter != cellList.end();cellIter++){
    //if point is inside the cell
    if(x<=cellIter->right && x>=cellIter->left && y<=cellIter->top && y>=cellIter->bottom){
      break; //break the loop
    }
  }
  
  return (*cellIter);
}

I want findCell to return a pointer to the cell. Firstly I have to say that iterators confuse me a bit, they seem to be neither one thing nor the other,
in the loop they work just like a pointer, but I can't return the iterator as the pointer, and I can't type cast it (tried a few other things untill I landed on the code above).

I really don't want to be passing object data around everywhere as that would be inefficient.

What is the correct solution? Or should I find a different way to do the same task?

edit:
solved
Got some help on gamedev.net
Turns out I need to use:
return &(*cellI);

Also, I would be better off using a vector than a list, because vectors are faster for random access.