I had never tried espresso until traveling to the Aviano military staging base back in the late 80's
Found a coffee machine outside the airfield exit point and shoved some coins in there hit the button.
Thought the machine was broke because the cup fell and a couple of squirts of black stuff went in there.
Others around me were laughing at the dumb American...a sweet Italian babe pointed out the sugar packs.
She dumped about four of them in there and gave me a few biscotti.
Quite an eye opener!
Now we know the difference between "English caffe and Espresso"
Came to really love Italy and Europe!