The first thing anyone notices in Symi is colour. Around the harbour of Gialos, the neoclassical mansions climb the hillside in ochre, rose, pale yellow and a blue softened by a century of sun, their pediments and shutters picked out in white. The Cyclades taught visitors to pack white; this island invites a little more. That palette is the first thing to pack for; the second is that almost everything here is reached on foot or by boat.

Symi belongs to the Dodecanese and lies north of Rhodes, tucked so close to the Turkish coast that its mountains fill the view to the north and east. There is no airport. Most visitors arrive by ferry or catamaran from Rhodes, and the entrance into Gialos, with the whole town opening up at once, is one of the reasons people come back. The houses were built on the wealth of sponge diving and wooden boat building in the nineteenth century, and many stood empty for decades before restoration brought them back to life. The season is long: warm from May to October, hot in July and August, and in October the sea often keeps enough warmth for a swim before lunch.

Colour can be taken literally here. A man walking the harbour front at ten in the morning in the Vibes Linen Shirt in Dubarry looks as though he belongs to the façades behind him rather than to the ferry he came on. PP linen shorts in Beige keep the rest of the outfit quiet. For a woman, the PP linen blouse in Pink over a swimsuit and a skirt brought from home is enough for the morning coffee at the water's edge and the walk to the bakery behind the clock tower.

The Kali Strata is the island's spine: a broad stone stairway of several hundred steps climbing from the harbour to Chorio, the upper town, past ruined mansions with carved doorframes and views that widen at every landing. It is easiest in the early morning or after five, when the stone has started to give back its heat. Clothing for the climb should move freely at the knee and allow air at the back. The PP Natural Set in Sky Blue, a linen shirt and shorts cut to wear together, suits it well, and on the way down it looks just as considered at a café table in Chorio.

Boats are the other road. Water taxis leave Gialos each morning for the beaches that cannot be reached by land, among them Agios Georgios Dysalona beneath its cliff and the small coves of the east coast. For the swim, PP swim shorts in Roosewood Pink pick up the rose of the harbour houses; for the ride and the lunch ashore, a shirt goes over them once dry. The Amelia linen dress shirt in Coral Orange is the obvious choice for a woman on these days: worn as a dress, it moves from deck to taverna without a change.

In the south of the island stands the Monastery of the Archangel Michael at Panormitis, its tall bell tower visible from the sea long before the bay opens. Some boats from Rhodes call there before reaching Gialos. As at most Greek monasteries, covered shoulders and knees are expected inside, so a man in long PP Casual Linen Trousers in Sapphire Blue is ready for it, and a woman visiting the church will want her long skirt and the blouse rather than shorts. The same stop on Patmos, further north in the Dodecanese, asks for the same care.

Evenings return to the harbour. Tables are set along the quay, the façades glow as the lamps come on, and the ferries have gone. This is the hour for the Laos Short Sleeve Linen Shirt in Vanille with PP Trousers 100% Linen in Sapphire Blue, or for the Amelia linen dress shirt in Violet. Symi is often combined with a few days on its larger neighbour, and the wardrobe for Rhodes differs mainly in the evenings, which there take place in a walled medieval town rather than on a quay.

Symi has no beach clubs and no nightlife to speak of, and almost no one misses them. What the island offers instead is its harbour at nine in the evening, lamps reflected in still water, and quayside tables where soft colour and natural cloth look as though they were chosen by the town itself.

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