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I have discovered true heaven. It is not in the Vatican, nor in London. It is in the body of the truffle. Of course I have read often about this delicacy but tasting it for the first time, in a truffle lasagna in a lakeside restaurant at Castel Gandolfo after hearing the Pope's Angelus, took my experiences in Rome this week into a different order. Ah it was incredible. Beyond  belief. I cannot understand why I have wasted half my life at least never having tasted one before. A stallholder in the market there was selling some freshly harvested truffles so I bought three to take home. One is for my sister who has been caring for our son while I am in Rome, covering for correspondent Richard Owen.  Another is for some bishops who looked after him while I was at General Synod the weekend before. And the third is for my husband, part of an attempt to make substitutionary atonement for being away for so long. I have been storing them in the mini-fridge at the hotel I am staying at in the centre of Rome, not far from the English College. No matter how many pages of The Times I wrap them in, their scent suffuses the room so it is impossible to be in there without salivating. When I sleep, I dream of truffles and more truffles. I've been keeping my peaches in there too - it was the annual Peach Festival at Castel Gandolfo - and now the peaches taste of truffle. That is something else! The best thing of all, though, is that this addiction, which luckily is so expensive and so difficult to satisfy that it is in little danger of taking over my life completely, seems to have superseded or substituted for my addiction to chocolate. Guylian? Pah! Starbucks choc bars? Pah! Pasta? Pah! I've already lost two pounds. I don't want to eat anything but truffles. The truffle diet. It has to be the best idea for a diet book yet. The stallholder told me they last ten days. I hope they make it til Thursday. I'm not sure which will get them first, time, or me.




'The only way the French are going in is if we tell them we found truffles in Iraq.'
Dennis Miller

'If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles.'
Colette

Read some of what I've been doing here at my blog at The Times, Articles of Faith.