[prox]

Haha, not Italian but I have a basic understanding (buying stuff and simple interactions) but I can hear the difference, it does sound very weird! At least it’s not as fast as some Italian I’ve heard, the amount of times I had to ask a native speaker to slow down is high indeed.

[01acheru]

I guess it sounds even weirder to us native speakers since we are much more used to hearing normal Italian.

I think it is easier for you because all that stretching gives you the time to focus more on the single words, also Italian speech is different from province to province. Sometimes it is also hard for us to understand other Italians, mostly because each region's native speakers mix some dialectal sayings and pronunciation into their version of Italian. We have tens of Italian languages in Italy, but the more you live here the more you understand other Italians beside your own (closer regions sound more similar but going from extreme north to extreme south it gets really different).

[prox]

Is the a general “news anchor” general dialect that anyone can understand? Like on Rai Uno for example?

[01acheru]

The general dialect is simply a correct form of Italian, following all the rules and without adding anything from your dialect. It is the Italian language you learn at school.