Domestic, fresh taste-alike for an Italian coffee

I'd suggest buying it from someone who knows a thing or two about coffee, like http://www.wholelattelove.com/Lavazza/lava_oro.cfm.

Also, have you tried contacting Lavazza Qualita Oro with questions? If they don't know the best distributors, no one will.

A recommendation: http://www.tonyscoffee.com/shop/blend/cafe-carmelita/

I think you'll like this one as much or more than than the Lavazza Qualita Oro. It's quite wonderful, if not cheap.

It has an Agtron rating of 65. The Lavazza Qualita Oro is about 55, so this roast is lighter.

The Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) has developed a points system to classify the degree - the colour - of different roast types. The system consists of eight numbered colour disks against which one matches a sample of finely ground, roasted coffee, usually pressed into a laboratory petri dish. In this way one assigns the roast an approximate number on what is commonly called the Agtron Gourmet Scale, ranging from #95 (lightest roast) at intervals of 10 down to #25 (the darkest common roast).

I'm not exactly sure what is similar to that particular coffee, but this site has pretty much every product Lavazza offers available for shipping. Perhaps consider getting whole beans and grinding yourself? Also check out coffee roasting wiki and home roasting coffee then you'll have the freshest coffee around.

As green coffee is more stable than roasted, the roasting process tends to take place close to where it will be consumed. This reduces the time that roasted coffee spends in distribution, giving the consumer a longer shelf life. The vast majority of coffee is roasted commercially on a large scale, but some coffee drinkers roast coffee at home in order to have more control over the freshness and flavor profile of the beans.

If you feel like trying to mix your own, I think as a general rule Lavazza leans towards a lighter roast. Italian coffee blends also tend to use a fair bit of Brazilian coffee, and although I wouldn't take my word on it, I think Lavazza's characteristic flavor profile is from using a lot of it.

Finding a Brazilian coffee is kind of the hard part there; Sweet Maria's has a couple varieties, but that sour/iodine punch from cheap Brazilian arabica is what you want, and I think they tend to avoid that. (And of course Sweet Maria's stuff is unroasted, which may be more trouble than you want to deal with.) PortoRico.com has an all-Brazilian espresso roast, so you might want to try them as well.

If you want to go the route of creating a Lavazza clone, I hope what I've put here helps you.