from September...
Metano e benzina

Benzina I learned from Pimsleur.  Pimsleur became my music, my NPR, my car phone conversations, my company for chores around the house.  Pimsleur taught me Italian for thirty (or sometimes sixty or ninety) minutes a day from late April through July.

My favorite line was, "Dove a imparato l'Italiano?"  (Where did you learn Italian?)
The answer, according to the trusty CD, "Ho imparata da un corso di Pimsleur."

Walking, talking advertisement for Pimsleur!  I laughed out loud when I learned the sentence.  No one asks how we learned, likely because we haven't shown off (ahem) our learning quite yet.

Macchina and benzina and caro I remember: car and gas and expensive.

The owner of the car sent a text advising us to get metano rather than gasoline.  She told us, It's less than half the price of gasoline.  Only certain gas stations have it, and it takes about ten minutes to fill up the tank with twenty euro.

Over the weekend we added 15 euro of metano, saving our pennies and the environment at the same time.  We drove away from the gas station and noticed that that the gas gauge hadn't adjusted at all.  Today I watched the gauge line go down and down and down.  The gas light was on, and I couldn't figure out whether we had already used up all the methane.  We figured out that we need to press a button that activates our using either the benzina (gasoline) or metano.  Then the car uses that source until you switch it over to the other.

Conversation in the Fiat:

So methane is a natural gas?
Yes.
So it's better to use it, right?
Yes.
How do we get it?
Don't we get it from cows?
From their flatulence?
Or just their poop?