Tonali has made a successful playing return this season after serving a nine-month betting ban.
He told Sky Italia: "The Newcastle fans behaved in an unexpected way during the disqualification and I thank them, they don't make any judgements. Even when I watched the matches at the stadium I didn't hear any judgements, in fact they shook my hand and this struck me because I wasn't expecting it.
"Many aspects of my life have changed, but I'm fine on and off the pitch. My relationship with people has also changed, this goes beyond football and has made the difference."
Tonali also said: "You have to be super, a team even with very strong players may not be at the top. We always have to be at 100%, we don't even know the limits. You can win or lose with the first or last in the league, that's why we don't set limits for ourselve.
"The goal before returning was to play as much as possible, I knew it wouldn't be easy. For now I've done it in the best way, even with the national team which was another big goal of mine. For me, however, it remains the same: to play and do the best possible to try to win here. We are in the quarter-finals of the Cup, that is our goal.
"Last year things didn't go well for us, but that remains our big goal."