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). 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 😊