Well, I think it depends on what is "good enough". Keep in mind this is a forum where people go to great depths of fussing and sweating to get even marginal improvements in cup.

In my opinion it is hard to easily replicate the shop quality espresso at home. It requires fussing about things like storing the beans so they don't go stale (freezing in single doses is your friend here, especially for darker roasts), coffee puck prep, making sure you don't get stale grounds from the grinder (purging, single dosing, weighing), controlling your water quality, making sure brew temperatures are correct, finding fresh enough beans, and so on and so forth.

A good, busy shop would usually have more temperature stable machines, beans going out fast so they don't stale, doser grinders so they wouldn't have static / clumping issues, water treated to a specific mixture of minerals (well, at least the better shops), and so on.

If you really like espresso style coffee, but don't want to go all the way to make sure it is done correctly, then Nespresso and other pod systems or the bean-to-cup autos are the way to go. I personally don't think they make coffee that is how espresso should be, at least I have yet to taste such a full-auto. But for many they are just right; no strong flavors that either offend or excite, comes out exactly the same each and every time, has "crema", is in the espresso volume roughly, easy as push button.

Having to choose between the two, I would personally go with Nespresso myself as I'm too lazy to clean full-autos and frankly I trust the industrial grinders and machinery Nestlè has more than I do what is in a full-auto machine.

But to get good coffee that is more dense than drip / pour over coffee, and that is easy to prepare, I would actually just get a moka pot of some sort. Perhaps the Bialetti Brikka.

Just a few musings since I don't think there is a correct answer here.

Depends. I mean, I do agree in the sense that it was and is quite easy for me too. But it may not be for many. Let me try and explain, and please do note what I said about this forum in my previous comment:

1. I am the type of person that gets fairly deep into the nerdy side of any which hobby / activity I start. In espresso and coffee in general this means I read a lot and practice a lot until I get what I think is good or at least adequate. I like to think my base standard is quite high. I also think you might be similar, also with loads of experience. Right or wrong?

2. My taste preference is for bright, clean and acidic flavours, always has been, and while I do also enjoy (and have enjoyed before my more serious involvement in this hobby) the more "traditional" italian style coffee for me getting a well extracted light or light-medium roasted coffee is already better than 99.9% of what's an offer here in Italy.

3. If my taste preference was for more traditional italian coffee - as I think is the case with the OP - then it would be a little bit more difficult. Most of the coffee here is quite bitter. People add sugar, then it tastes good. Usually they also add milk, which also adds taste. If this is the baseline standard, then I think 80% or more of the cafès here do a pretty good job. I don't enjoy it, but seemingly the overwhelming majority of people do enjoy it.

4. Making espresso well at home requires you know how to select your gear, and learn to use it correctly, taking into account your taste preferences. You also have to take into account the beans, storing the beans, water quality, and all the rest. All this faffing and nerding about, IMHO, seems to be the base issue here for the OP and fam.

Point being, I was trying to put myself in a different set of boots here, and look at the whole hobby from the POV of someone who actually likes and prefers the true traditional italian espresso, and isn't really into going to great lengths of trouble to get that kind of espresso done at home, isn't really into nerdery in general. Thus home espresso isn't really a thing in italy. I mean, they call moka pot coffee "espresso" here sometimes.

Me? I definitely make better espresso than the vast majority of coffee shops in this country. But I only make it for myself and the family, and a few occasional brave quests. Actually I think I usually make better espresso than most specialty coffee shops I've been to.

Anyway, I hope I explained my point. This is why I would recommend Nespresso, or a moka pot, or some other stove-top coffee maker I am asssuming all of the above.

Pretty much, yes. The pod and bean-to-cup "espresso" machines make strong coffee, but not something that I'd associate with espresso, especially classic, Italian espresso.

A moka pot can make better strong coffee with a reasonable amount of care. Dosing isn't as sensitive as for an espresso machine and the grind tends to be reasonably consistent over time.

It's been a while since I've read/watched techniques. I'd want to confirm, but using near-boiling water to fill and pulling the pot from the heat stick in my head as some of the modern approaches to good results from the moka pot. A moka pot also would let you change coffees to better match your flavor preferences.

If you have Kimbo coffee in Slovenia they make pods for Nespresso. They have a couple of blends with a decent amount of body. Napoli and ... I don't remember, the gold ones which I think I liked more, Roma maybe.