espresso thingy

one of the things that i enjoyed in france was the way i would be offered un café after a meal. it is not coffee, but espresso, and it is a lovely custom. i would like to be able to make this at home, but an electric espresso maker has been ruled out as another thing to clutter up the counter. i could fuss, but... it would be hard to find a place to store it.

now, a second option is to get one of them metal espresso thingies. as it happens, i have an amazon gift certificate that would just cover this with shipping.

my dilemma is that i really know nothing about espresso except that it is extremely tasty and high octane. i really like the $100 machines with cream warmers & frothers, but i am sure i will survive without them. so... coffee gurus out there. is this the way to go? is it fussy? is the coffee better or worse than with the fancy machines?

drop me a line because school has started and i really need the caffeine.