One for those who want to skip past spring and head straight into summer: the Positano candle by Cire Trudon and Giambattista Valli. It’s heady and exotic, packed chockablock full with white florals and jasmine and orange blossom, but it’s also somehow very refined and chic. When it comes to unique, top quality candles you’d be hard pressed to beat Cire Trudon, but this limited edition is even more lust-worthy than usual. The overwhelming fragrance note, for me, is the tuberose, but the other florals add interest and stop the tuberose from smelling too…sickly. (Does anyone else get a bit nauseous when there’s a tuberose overload going on?)

Positano has (strangely enough!) been inspired by the scents of the little village of Positano on the Amalfi coast. I’m pretty sure I went to Positano on a secondary school trip back in 1994, but let’s not lower the tone: this candle scent is based on Giambattista Valli’s olfactory memories, which are possibly slightly more glamorous than my own. I’m pretty sure that my olfactory memories of the Amalfi coast are limited to the smell of the “naughty girls” smoking illicit cigarettes and the weird odour that a touring coach develops after eight straight days of occupation by thirty teenage girls.

Anyway: if you want a touch of Italian summer in your home and you fancy a bit of a treat-to-self, the Positano candle can be bought at Selfridges.com for £70. Burn time is around 55-60 hours but I find one little burning session every couple of days is enough to keep the ambient scent going, so you can make this one last a very long time…