my $max_tries = 5;

foreach $item (@array) {
   my $tries = 0;
   while(some_test($item) and $tries++ < $max_tries) {
      print "Failure: $item, trying again after sleep\n";
      sleep 10;
   }

   if( $tries == $max_tries){
      die "Failed $tries times, aborting";
   }else{
      print "Success: $item\n";
   }
}