What is the easiest way to learn Italian {conversational ]?

I had to go to Italy for work for a month and I wanted to learn a bit of Italian so I bought an English-Italian Dictionary which came in handy over there and before I went I got some tapes at Barnes Noble called Learning Italian which taught me common phrases, words and pronunciation. I would reccommend both. It’s very similar to Spanish so if you know some Spanish it’ll help you catch on as well. I held several conversations with the villagers and my questions and answers were always understood, it’s the best way to learn conversational Italian. I caught on pretty quickly.