In few weeks I will need to explain to an American man something... It is really clear to me how to say that in Italian, but he does not understand...So, can you help me?
The Italian sentence is "prendere per i fondelli" - not polite, there is also a worse not printable version. It means...to kid someone in a really bad and wicked way, having maybe in the same time sweet words, but an offensive behaviour...I found "to pull somebody's leg" but I feel it too soft, "to mock at", "to scoff at", but I am not sure that they mean what I want.
Ciao, grazie
Emanuela

'to tease' and 'to needle' are generally considered to have pretty negative aspects -- but guys like to tease and gals hate it.

: )

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Not much use to an American but an interesting tangent -
A local expression (in Central Scotland) is; 'You're pulling my pisher,' or, 'Don't pull my pisher.'
'Taking the piss' is an obvious one but it does fail to address the 'sweet words'. Perhaps it can't be done.
Similarly, I would wager there is not an Italian equivalent of the Scottish word 'wersh'.

How about leading someone 'up the garden path'. Hardly vulgar, but it is a nice way to describe the act of misleading. A vulgar slant on the "pulling of the leg" is the obvious pulling of another apendage and that particular variation is not uncommon here in Australia!