I find generally that XML::Simple ain't. Try XML::TreeBuilder or XML::Twig instead:

use strict;
use warnings;

use XML::TreeBuilder;
use XML::Twig;

my $xml = do {local $/; <DATA>};

print "Using TreeBuilder:\n";

my $root = XML::TreeBuilder->new ();
$root->parse ($xml);

my @itemNodes = $root->look_down ('_tag', 'item');
my $nodeCount;

for my $nodeIndex (0 .. @itemNodes - 1) {
    my @titles = $itemNodes[$nodeIndex]->look_down ('_tag', 'title');
   
    print "Item node " . ($nodeIndex + 1) . "\n";
    print "   ", $_->as_text (), "\n" for @titles;
}

print "\nUsing  Twig\n";

my $t= XML::Twig->new (twig_roots => {item => \&data});

$t->parse ($xml);


sub data {
    my ($t, $data) = @_;
   
    ++$nodeCount;
    print "Item node $nodeCount\n";
   
    my @titles = $data->descendants ('title');
   
    print "   ", $_->trimmed_text (), "\n" for @titles;
}


__DATA__
<inbox>
    <item>
        <title>Foo</title>
        <description>Bar</description>
    </item>
    <item>
        <title>Baz</title>
        <description>Foobar</description>
    </item>
</inbox>
[download]

Prints:

Using TreeBuilder:
Item node 1
   Foo
Item node 2
   Baz

Using  Twig
Item node 1
   Foo
Item node 2
   Baz
[download]