I'm stoked that I finally found this thread of yours. I've been visiting Italy for years, and only just recently got hooked on making espresso myself. Ironically it was here in S.F. that the light bulb came on, thanks to an Italian immigrant, Giovanni Airaghi, who runs a thriving kiosk near my office. Giovanni learned to pull shots for his dad on a Faema lever at the age of 10. While he's not quite as casual as those Roman baristi you saw, he pulls great espresso as easily as I tie my shoelaces. People line up in the rain for him -- you don't see that everywhere.
I'm starting to think, maybe it ain't the mano, it's the mojo!
By contrast, we in the Inglese-speaking world approach espresso in a very self-conscious, calculating manner... as if the god-shot were a moon-shot. Our best espresso may be better as a result, but still, our average real-world espresso... Oy! As I said to Giovanni the other day, I don't need all our coffee shops to be elite Third-Waver -- if our average espresso could just reach the average level of Italy's, that would be an awesome improvement!
As you saw in Rome, the Italian barista isn't the sort who'd ever train with a gram scale for dosing, let alone a bathroom scale for tamping. The very idea would make him bust out laughing. Maybe for Italians, making espresso is more like cooking, making music, making love, or driving real fast. It didn't all happen overnight -- but it happened naturally.
I'm going back to Italy in June -- I can hardly wait! My girlfriend has an apt. in Como, which helps a lot. This time, I'll be drinking more espresso than prosecco!
Ci vediamo,
Wayne
P.S. I'm really curious where those cafes get their beans from -- they can't be using the stale Lavazza you find in the supermarkets, that's for sure!
