If you’re a hardcore shopper, or if like me, you just fancy a poke around the shops every now and then, you’re in for a treat. Sorrento is a great town for shopping – the tiny streets just off Piazza Tasso are full of small stores and stalls selling all kinds of local products, from enormous fruit and vegetables to artisan gelato – but one of the most common sights you’ll see is a workshop selling the wooden boxes that the town is so well known for. Gelis and Pudelbonzo have already written really nice commis to this fragrance, but I would like to take up the cudgels for him today. The name may sound like a terrible made-for-television movie shown during the festive period, but rest assured! It’s not actually called Christmas Alley. Phew. Need more on Positano? Read about my death-defying day there, and get the essentials on the town. Sorrento: Inlaid Wooden Boxes and Cameo Jewellery

You’ve found yourself in one of the most beautiful and culturally-rich areas of Italy: the area around Naples and the Amalfi Coast. Once you’ve explored the sights, the history, the food, there’s only thing thing left… shopping! It's pleasant here in the fragrant shade, as the grapefruit trees and their many small blossoms smell pleasantly spicy in the sun: it's a scent that exudes vibrancy and stability. A Girl in Capri" succeeds in a precision landing: this is exactly where you want to be: in the middle of the scented action and outside the hustle and bustle. It lies piled up, by now well dried and in whimsical shapes, in a corner, telling faintly salty-smelling stories of life on the sea. The street is at it’s peak in September and October when stallholders are gearing up for the Christmas period, some carving the figures deep within their stall, but it’s not just confined to winter festivities. If you’re a football/soccer fan, then you’ll definitely want to visit: you’ll never again see such a variety of statuettes and caricatures of footballers. Aside from images of the godlike Maradona (who has his own shrine just around the corner at Bar Nilo), you’ll be spoilt for choice for lovingly created statues of Napoli players, and slightly less-than loving figures of the rival Juventus team.But the clarity of Girl of Capri, who is anything but feminine, but who is definitely unisex capable, is a secret tip for you for this summer. Fancy reading some more on Amalfi? Read about the town, and the world’s cutest puppy, here. Guaranteed Shopping Satisfaction

I would gladly take a piece of wood or two in my hand, stroke its water-polished smoothness, and listen to what this wood has to tell.What I'm telling you is that "A Girl In Capri" is a summer-sun-sea-holiday pretending beautiful summer scent. I smell lemon, driftwood (woody, a teeny bit musty, like damp wood even) and sea spray with a hint of salt. The grapefruit blossom shows through with a slightly soapy note and very delicate sweetness. I don't detect the musk, even as a powder. I think to myself, he should hold the whole thing together somehow. Lanvin fragrances are rarely loud or particularly heavy. They still carry the charming personality of the company's founder Jeanne Lanvin as their very own DNA.

Skip forward to 1948, and the prior of the Charterhouse discovered the ye olde formula, and sold it to a chemist in Piedmont. This created Cathusia perfume. Whether you believe the tale or not, the more pressing point is the perfume itself: how good is it?The best selection is in Sapori di Positano on Via dei Mulini – this little shop has everything that it is possible to produce from the humble lemon. Family run, it’s best known for its line of traditionally-made limoncello, a lemon liqueur that you’ll see quite frequently in the Amalfi Coast area. But don’t settle for the more-generic ones you see in the tourist shops; this is the better stuff. But my favourites are the sweet treats: the lemon candies, nougat (nothing is better than Italian nougat!), and lemon chocolate. Yes, you read that right, lemon chocolate. Even better, all of these souvenirs have a strong basis in Italian history and culture, truly reflecting the area and people who made them. No novelty Michelangelo’s David aprons here! This has been crushed in the mortar - also for further consumption - so that its strong spicy aroma becomes one with the fresh fruity one of lemons and bergamots.

But I must not; the habitual routine in which everything proceeds, and from which results the serenity and fragrance in the air, would be disturbed. And it saves us the trip on the crowded ferry, the climb through the narrow alleys crowded with people in summer temperatures.So I enjoy my place under trees, surrounded by aromatic fresh scents, happy people and pleasant warmth. If you’d like something a tiny bit smaller, and more likely to survive the journey home, tiles are a good choice. You’ll see plenty of shops selling these, particularly ones depicting the local landscape, or the blue and white Cross of Amalfi. However, my choice was a shop along Via Lorenzo D’Amalfi, which seems to specialise in cat-shaped homewares. And that’s exactly my kind of souvenir! Not as "A Girl in Capri", it's too late for that: I'm too old; but as a connoisseur of atmosphere, colours, sounds and wonderful scents. They form a harmonious whole here. I was already enthusiastic about other fresh lemon scents in the last years. So Limon Verde from Guerlain was the hammer. The lemon verbena scent of L'Occitane en Provence Verveine is citric beauty to smell, or the special edition of Light Blue Limon C'est with extra lemons was as fresh as if you could sink into it.