  Local early-type galaxies (ETGs) are mostly populated by old stars, with
little or no recent star formation activity. For this reason, they have
historically been believed to be essentially devoid of cold gas, that is the
fuel for the formation of new stars. Over the past two decades, however,
increasingly-sensitive instrumentation observing the sky at (sub-)mm
wavelengths has revealed the presence of significant amounts of cold molecular
gas in the hearts of nearby ETGs. The unprecedented capabilities offered by the
Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in particular, have
allowed us to obtain snapshots of the central regions of these ETGs with
unprecedented detail, mapping this gas with higher sensitivity and resolution
than ever possible before. Studies of the kinematics of the observed cold gas
reservoirs are crucial for galaxy formation and evolution theories, providing -
e.g. - constraints on the fundamental properties and fuelling/feedback
processes of super-massive black holes (SMBHs) at the centre of these galaxies.
In this brief review, we summarise what the first ten years of ALMA
observations have taught us about the distribution and kinematics of the cold
molecular gas component in nearby ellipticals and lenticulars.
