There is no "easy" way... It depends on the level you wanna get and why you wanna learn it. My advice is to read Italian websites about what you like and write in a forum. In these way you can expand your vocabulary and improve your writing skills. The next step can be buying a grammar book and read it. Then you may wanna talk with someone (skype is the way) and finally you can watch the almost unlimited collection of movies dubbed in Italian and listen to some music. ;)

I think it is different for every person. A good way could be choose a topic that you like very much and start to read and lissent something about its. In the beginning could be difficult, because maybe you don't know many italian words but it is a really good exercise to improve your vocabulary!

The easiest way is: - get born from Italian parents who are also Italian teachers at school. In alternative to that, I might suggest you a way that is also partly fun, in case you like Italian songs. a) start with a grammar book and at the same time: b1) find some Italian songs that you REALLY LIKE (5 are enough) c1) try to translate SOME of these songs, eventually asking help from your teacher or from the very busy and very bright Ital(k)ian people. also: b2) have an easy bi-lingual book at hand, to browse and annotate interesting (and common) words; as the book is bilingual you would know which words are common. AND eventually: b3) find some Italian speaker to share language knowledge with. If possible: b4) take some Italian lessons. Other paths are obviously possible, it all depends upon your tastes and opportunities. Start with some Italian songs that

as for all languages, the easiest way is by practice it :-)

Move to Italy and speak it everyday.