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I'm no expert but your situation sounds familiar to me... :)

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For working on your ability to understand it when spoken at a natural pace, try this:

Find a video on YouTube of native speakers, speaking "natively" (hard to clarify what I mean ... I mean not from a movie or sitcom since they don't necessarily speak in the way you'd hear in real life, pausing for comic effect/etc). For instance, just to pick an example from a YouTube channel I like, this short documentary about the Bugatti EB110 or this one about the Ferrari F40. Pick something relevant - either related to the work you do, related to something you're interested in, and/or something from the region where you live to really nail understanding the accent/regionalisms.

Now, *listen and transcribe*. It's OK to leave gaps, if you can't catch a word, but rewind and try to get it a couple of times. (If you definitely can't get it, post the link and the timestamp here, one of our friendly native speakers will probably be happy to help.) What this will do is train your ability to actively listen.

Personal experience note: A lot of people, myself included, once they get to a "getting the idea" level, have trouble getting past that level to the "getting everything" level. I'm working with a teacher right now who is only talking to me as he'd talk to native speakers, not doing any 'dumbing down for the foreigner', and he might tell me about something that's going on in Italy and then ask me to give him back a summary of what he just said. So I'm currently getting a crash course in this transition from "getting the idea" to "getting everything."

(If, at the beginning, you end up missing a lot because of how quickly they're speaking, extract the audio from the video using one of the "YouTube To MP3" services, load it into some software like Audacity, and slow it down like ten or fifteen percent or whatever you need to start being able to transcribe it. Then work it up to 100% speed.)

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For coming up with the right vocabulary in "real time", what I'd suggest is keeping a journal. Write about your day, write about what you did at work, whatever. Maybe just something funny that happened. If you're completely drawing a blank on what to write about, pick a 'writing prompt' from a book like this or its sequel or its other sequel. One, I'm a firm believer in the idea that if you can't get your thoughts out while writing at your own pace, you're screwed as far as getting those thoughts out while speaking conversationally. Two, and trust me on this, this will help identify weak points in vocabulary and grammar that you didn't even know you had.

You're fortunate that you live in Italy and have native speakers to use as a resource - Ask them if they'll help you out by reading over your journal entries and correcting them, even to the level of "I get what you mean but a native speaker would say it like this". (Make sure you understand the corrections - also you might find it additionally helpful to re-write it with the corrections.)

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(Do the transcriptions and the journal in long hand. Buy a notebook and a pen. I say this because it really does help make these mental connections better than typing does, it's not just because I'm old... :))

This aproach has helped me to quickly achieve conversational fluency in Italian, French and Spanish. You will not be able to write formal letters, and you will definitely speak with errors, but you will be speaking, reading and understanding Italian.

1. Get a audio course. Michel Thomas is great. Paul Pimsleur is also very good. These audio courses will teach you basic vocabulary and grammar, in a completely "natural" way. You can find intros of it on the interwebs for free, and the whole series on Amazon. The only drawback is the lack of vocabulary, as both courses teach you around 800 words after you finished them. Which brings me to point 2.
   
   
2. Get a frequency dictionary. By far the best investment if you want to broaden your vocabulary quickly. The series below also provides you with IPA phonetic translation and Italian to English example sentences. It's kind of like a bilingual book if you look at it that way.
   
   Listed below for your convenience:
   
   

• Italian Essential Vocabulary: Book 1
  
• Italian Intermediate Vocabulary: Book 2
  
• Italian Advanced Vocabulary: Book 3
  
• Italian Master Vocabulary: Book 4
  
  Hope this helps! Good luck in your journey :)
  

This book is the best textbook I’ve seen. The verbs can be complex but as a French speaker you have an advantage over people who only speak a language like English because you’re familiar with a language that prominently features things like conjugations and subjunctive tenses.

Truth be told, the only way to have a marked improvement in a language is to use it use it use it. If you have a friend who speaks Italian, try to practice with them. If you don’t, for practice speaking, try reading a book that’s been translated into Italian out loud. Don’t even necessarily worry about understanding what everything means; you’ll start to pick up on things that are commonly used and you’ll notice your studying becomes much more targeted and productive, plus you get to practice the act of speaking, your accent, and all that good stuff. For comprehension, watch movies in Italian, and put the subtitles in Italian. That’ll help give you a reference for how people talk and it’s the best way I’ve ever found to improve comprehension aside from one on one conversation with an Italian speaker.

I've been using The Ultimate Italian Review and Practice. It has a pretty good explanation of grammar and plenty of exercises in each section. All of the answers to the practice exercises are in the back of the book. In bocca al lupo!

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