Where I live there are not many starter espresso machines to buy, you can buy $4-5k machines for coffee houses but that's pretty much it.
I live in the US in the Wash, DC area. After reading lots of reviews, I had wanted to get the Zaffiro: – makes really good espressos – steams milk well even tho it seems there is a couple of minute warm up time The Amica seemed to fix some issues with the Zaffiro as far as usability and thermostats wearing out.