Apparently, Aussies are so obsessed with coffee that it's referred to as the coffee capital of the world down here (some bits, at least). "But what about Italy?" people ask. Having spent a lot of time in a lot of Italy, no, it's just not the same. It's not the same ubiquity of high-quality coffee shops and passion for what many view as the art of making espresso-based drinks. There's comparably little tolerance for the likes of Starbucks (who have not fared well in Australia), and other mass-produced forms of the drink (I don't think I've ever seen diner-style filter coffee here). All that said, we may have gone just a little overboard with the new machine, but anything worth doing is worth doing to excess 😊