siena_us

Just a small correction, the Fiorentina should be from a chianina cow. They are beautiful creatures (HUGE) You can read about them in ItalianHERE

Stages are possible, finding a paying job instead is close to impossible. You will be allowed to stay in Italy for 90 days out of 180 days so if you go to school you will use up part of that time. After 90 days you have to leave for 90 before you can return. If the school has you get a visa then you could possibly get around the situation but you would have to go back to the local questura and apply for a new permesso di soggiorno for tourism. If you are willing to stage then start sending out letters of intent ASAP. Let me know if I can be of more help. You can also check out my site about Moving to Italy

A doppio is a double shot of espresso in the same cup (you either use the double gruppo or better yet, do two single shots). A lungo is letting the coffee run long which makes it weaker. Ristretto is about 2/3 the amount of a regular espresso. Lungo is about 50-75% more liquid.

No a ristretto here in Italy is the same grind. Ristretto means tight, you make a coffee with the same type and amount of grinds but just get the first part of the run which has more of the coffee flavor. The longer you let it run, the weaker the coffee that comes out. You can watch it coming out and pull away the cup at the right time by noting the color.

Moby P, Sorry about that, I guess I should know better to read before the caffeine has hit my system

You may believe so but try that with any Italian and they will tell you the pasta is sciocco (needs salt), even if the sauce is salty enough. It really does make a difference in the final product.

Yes it should be salty and we do use "salty as the sea" as a reference but of course it really isn't that salty. I throw in about a handful (2 heaping tablespoon fulls) of rock salt to my 4 quart pot. I have never worked in a restaurant here (Italy) or seen one where they did not salt the water by the way. And to be quite honest I would have sent back the pasta if it was not cooked with enough salt and wouldn't return as it would mean they weren't into putting out good food. There is a difference. Another thing is to not add too much salt to your sauce as when you marry the sauce and the pasta together you also should add a ladel or so of the pasta cooking water which will have salt in it.

But why? The barrista at an Italian bar makes hundreds of shots a week. I have never seen a mistake. Even the espresso they pump out at the bars at the huge trade shows in tiny plastic cups always seem to be right on the mark. What is the mystery? The main reason for espressi being so bad in the states is because no one is trained on how to clean the machine. Most bartenders place the gruppo (the part where the grinds go) in the dishwasher at the end of every shift. The first think I was taught 20 years ago here in Italy by a barista is to never wash a coffee machine a stove top moka or a regular machine) with soap. No soap, ever! When you use soap (and hot water too) you take off all of the lovely oils that the grindsleave behind. This is what gets the crema. When we bought our big $10 grand machine for our restaurant (12 years ago), I bought a 5 kilos of beans and started making espressi. Took quite a while (coupole of hours) but the result was a great coffee from the first day we opened. I taught all of our bartenders never to wash the gruppo, just to rinse it daily with cold water. Of course every once in a while, someone would through them in the dishwasher (a fill in bartender or the cleaning crew) so I would have to start all over again with my 5 kilo bag.