I never paid too much attention to my Milanese accent until it was pointed out to me when I was in other parts of Italy. The first question I was asked was and still is, 'you are from Milan, aren't you?', well more like a confirmation than a real question. I don't speak Milanese dialect, apart from a few words or sayings that are now part of my way of expressing myself. My accent immediately jumps to the ears of non-Milanese friends and relatives who, listening to me, make fun of me a bit because the peculiarity of my accent (not so marked, however) is to have very open vowels. So when I say for example 'cotoletta' (cutlet), it sounds like 'cotoleeeetta', with a very long E that sounds almost like an A, 'cotolaaaaatta'. Or even when I ask 'perché?' (why?) it sounds like 'perchéééééé?' for the same reason.
In my own region there are so many different dialects and I don't speak any of them, nor do I understand them. The dialect of Bergamo (northern Lombardy, about 50 km from Milan) is completely different from Milanese, as is the dialect of Lodi (southern Lombardy, about 40 km from Milan). The Bergamo accent is rather harsh and with closed, contracted vowels and consonants. There's like a diphthong that keeps popping up like 'ou'.
I really struggle to understand other dialects outside Lombardy, apart from Neapolitan, Apulian and Sardinian. Venetian, Marche or Calabrian leave me astonished.
When I'm in Sardinia or Puglia or Rome, I immediately pick up their accents and my Milanese gets a little lost.
I like the Tuscan cadence, but not that of the whole of Tuscany. I find the Florence accent a bit too strong, while the Tuscan of the Grosseto area (southern Tuscany) is softer. In any case, Tuscans have this peculiarity everywhere: they don't pronounce the consonant C, but pronounce it as H. So Casa (home) becomes Hasa.
I have a strong liking both for the Ligurian (especially the Genoese one) and Bolognese accent. It is very similar to Portuguese, it has a soft and musical cadence. I don't understand the Genoese dialect (although my genoese friends keep learning it to me), but I learnt some phrases and idioms by listening to the Genoese singer-songwriter Fabrizio De André.
I lived in Bologna for a while for work many years ago, their accent is so nice...the Bolognese, as well as in general all of Emilia Romagna, pronounce the Z as S and the G as Z. So they pronounce Parmigiano Reggiano as 'Parmizano Rezzano'. I also started to pronounce it like this when in Bologna. When I came back to Milan, I spoke with a strong Bolognese accent.