The little island of Procida in the gulf of Naples is luckily not too well known. Capri and Ischia, its more famous neighbours, take the majority of tourists. All three islands are famous for their colourful fishermen’s villages, the sea in all shades of blue and a mixture of beaches and rugged cliffs. Only on Procida it is still reality what the other islands also were famous for and then lost with the arrival of the tourists – the little island life.
Procida never succumbed to tourism, because its inhabitants seem not to need too much tourists. There is not one big international hotel chain or wellness spa like in Ischia and not one of the luxury shops that Capri is famous for. There are no Roman ruins and no famous artist made the island his home.
Procida features individual hotels and B&B’s, small supermarkets, fruit stores, fishermen’s supply and boutiques. There is not one shopping centre or any of the big chains. One gets what one needs for the daily life and some goodie add-ons. What there is on Procida is there to make the life of the inhabitants comfortable, and not to give tourists an extra treat. In how many places of such exceptional beauty is that still the case?
Tourists are welcome on the island, especially during the year 2022, when Procida is capital of culture for Europe. Tourists are welcome to admire the stupendous beauty, but life does not revolve around them.
The island’s inhabitants work as fishermen, ship captains mainly and producers of fruits (the lemons of Procida are pretty famous). The houses on Procida are not small, the people who live there are not poor.
Some inhabitants are hotel, shop and restaurant owners, taxi drivers and tour guides. But not the majority. A tourist has to adapt to island life and become calmer and less hectic. This is also helped by the boats one has to take to come over from Naples or Pozzuoli – they are cancelled at the whim of the moment if there is a little bit of “mare mosso” and one is stuck at the island. No need to get agitated, nothing one can do but wait.
There are two perfume brands from Procida, “Profumi di Procida” and “Acqua di Procida”. Whilst the first can be found online and they seem to send their goods to foreign countries, the second is made and sold only by Profumeria Valerio in the Marina Grande of the Island.
I bought from Profumi di Procida “Procida” and from Acqua di Procida “Silurenza”, “Carcara” and “Sciuscedda”. Both brands also have a scent only with lemons, but as they are a bit monotonous and since they smell both exactly like freshly cut lemons do, I am quite sure you get the point without me telling more.
“Profumi di Procida’s” scents I tested not in their shop, which was closed, but in a nice boutique run by two ageless ladies in the Marina Grande. It is always fascinating reading scent notes and the smelling the real thing. Before I stood in the shop I had not though of buying “Procida”, but when spraying the perfume, it was instantly clear. What I smell most is roses with a sweet and generous subtone of crystalized cane sugar or honey. Checking the official scent notes later, there is only orange, lemon and magnolia in “Procida”. it must be the sweet orange that does the trick and the magnolia is a covert rose. A very beautiful, feminine fragrance. To me there is no explicit fruit in the scent, the mixture gives the flowers the centre part and the scent does not change much over time. When tested against other scents one can smell the lemon. It limits the sweetness of the perfume, which is just right. Really nicely done.
The brand “Acqua di Procida” I did not know existed, so I was taken by surprise when I discovered the scents in the Profumeria Valerio (I only needed cotton wool pads, which I could not find in the little Marina where I lived). I was a bit reluctant to test, the blueish packaging reminding me of citrus colognes. But the as the first perfume stripe I smelled contained “Carcara”, I was immediately convinced.
“Carcara” is the gourmand scent of the four. Strawberry, cocos, caramell and orange. Sweet and delightful. Pretty much exactly as the houses look in Marina Corricella. Candy box like, almost impossible that something so delightfully picturesque is not a fake. No, it is not. There is substance to it and also to the scent. It is one of the best strawberry scents I know.
“Sciuscedda” has more sea in it. There is pineapple, lemon and sea salt. It reminds me of a windy, but warm day on the island. On such a day I took the picture shown above where the whole sea looks like melted gold. Magnificent, but wild.
“Silurenza” is the most herbal acquatic of the scents. There is lemon in it, green mandarin and unsweet lavender and herbal mint. It is the only one of the scents that is unisex in my opinion.
One of the nice things about “Acqua di Procida” is that the brand is so unknown, they don’t even have a website. Their perfumes are neither on the site Parfumo nor on Fragrantica. On the packaging was also no mention of the scent notes of the perfume.
Rarely could I guess the mixture of ingredients completely uninfluenced by anybody else.
The names of the perfumes seem to be names of beaches on the island, but especially for “Carcara” I am not sure.
Smelling the very different perfumes brings memories of the island back, with its picture-perfect views, the serenity, the boredom in winter and during rainy days, the wildness and the harshness also of Terra Murata, a lost place in history.
Is Procida an island I would like to live on? Not really, to be honest. It is beautiful, but like a village. 11.000 inhabitants are crammed on 4 sqm, with no direct access to the nearest next town except by boat.
It is a place I want to remember and I want to smell from time to time, as being very different to my normal surroundings.