Hello all,
I've been using a Saeco via venezia and blade grinder for many years and making, I guess, pretty ordinary coffee!
I've decided to embark on the espresso journey proper, and have a Rocket Giotto Evoluzione and Mazzer mini-e arriving next week.
Many hours perusing the various forums/searches etc makes it very clear this is a complex process to do well and I'm a little confused as to where I should start when these beautiful machines hit my front door.
If anyone has a little time to give me some advice, I'd be most grateful.
I'm not concerned with milk drinks at this stage, just want to get a reasonable espresso shot happening and hopefully improve from there....
Should I focus on the grind/dose before even turning the Rocket on?
What dose is sensible to start with?
I guess what I'm asking is, what is a sensible sequence to follow get these 2 machines, and myself, started on the goal of making a decent espresso.
Thanks very much in advance for any advice.

When I got my espresso machines, I completely tore them down to give them a good cleaning.

...But you are a lucky man and bought new equipment so you can just throw them on the counter and start making espresso.
Turn on the Rocket, put beans in the MiniE, take your time and at least try to enjoy it. Don't worry about any mess, grounds clean up easily. Don't taste stuff that doesn't even look right. Your tastebuds will be tired before any semidecent stuff comes out.

How will you know if your grind/dose (and dont forget proper distribution) are correct if you dont turn on the machine to try things out? Get some good fresh coffee (3 or 4 pounds of the same blend for your first week of learning) and go at it. It is not hard, it just takes practice and practice takes time.

I would get some good coffee first. Either find some good recommendations for quality roasters that are near by, or will ship to you, or there might be some good cafes that also sell bags of coffee too. If you can visit a good cafe, try out some shots and buy a couple bags of the same coffee to try at home, that would be great. It will let you try out some good espresso, and then benchmark your shots against that.

Remember to trust your taste, just because a cafe is 'third wave' doesn't mean it'll be good espresso, and not all 'fresh roasted' coffee is good coffee. And the same goes when you're at home, a good looking shot that's exactly 2oz in 25seconds, but tastes terrible is still a terrible shot.

A digital scale was a huge help for me to make sure I was dosing consistently, and now I try to write down the dose, grind setting, and some taste notes whenever I'm dialing in a new coffee.

Thanks for the advice!! I'll be sure to get fresh coffee, I had no idea how important that was until I started reading this forum.