Caffe coretta is drunk like a shot, for breakfast you can have a sweet cappuccino or brioche, and iced coffee to cool off in the afternoon and an espresso to wake you up with a double shot if you are tired. A good way to get into an argument is to ask a bunch of native Italians what is the best way to make stove top espresso.
An espresso machine is an Italian coffee maker that can be fully automatic, driven by pumps or levers and can be totally manual like the Moka Express. The Moka Express is a wonderfully designed Italian coffee maker that you use on your stove top. You put water in the bottom chamber, fill the coffee chamber with finely ground beans and press down tightly. Assemble the pot and put it on the stove on medium heat; when the water begins to boil you will hear a gurgling noise. That is the steam mixing with the water moving upwards through the packed coffee. Remove from the heat and serve it how you like it.
Expresso and Espresso are not the same thing to Italians. Ordering one when you want the other in Italy will get you widely varied results. Expresso is a very fast train in Italy while Espresso is the coffee drink you are looking for. Italian roast coffees are also very different than their French roast cousins. Italian Roast coffees will have little or no oil in them and are a rich dark brown. Roast times are longer than Arabica as well to get the best flavor when grinding. Also when staying true to the style of Italian coffee makers you should use a grind wheel for your coffee as it produces a finer grind than a blade grinder.
To find a decent espresso maker you will need to invest at least $150 as any models less than that are usually difficult to use and produce less desirable results. The way to make sure your Italian coffee maker makes good coffee is to have a really good grinder to get the grind as fine as possible.