After having approached the relation between metaphor and phraseology, this article focuses on how the conceptualisation of certain emotions is revealed in Spanish and Italian. An analysis of a corpus of phraseological units, containing mainly metaphors expressing emotions derived from corporal experiences is conducted to check whether there are significant differences in the expression of these emotions in both cultures. The main objective is to compare the linguistic metaphors used to refer to them. Based on the results, we propose hierarchical iconic models of metaphors, which might be relevant in other disciplines.