As is known, misunderstandings during an intercultural communication are often caused by culture-specific stereotypes the participants of the communicative act manipulate with. Misunderstandings leads to tensions, they may be interpreted as offences, or they might bring about a “cognitive dissonance”, i.e. misunderstandings might condition a culture shock. The paper examines a culture-specific verbal and non-verbal means that are essential when handling communication in Italian. The author presents a number of didactic and methodotical strategies that might help teacher of Italian to deal with the issue.