escapeinside=|| usually works but not inside what for my programming language (SAS) is a string:
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{book}
\usepackage{minted}
\usemintedstyle{vs}
\newcommand{\sasinline}[1]{\mintinline{sas}{#1}}
\newenvironment{sas}{\VerbatimEnvironment
\begin{minted}[escapeinside=||]{sas}}
{\end{minted}}
\begin{document}
Is it possible to write \emph{percorso fisico} in italics here?
\begin{sas}
libname <|\emph{nome logico}|> '<|\emph{percorso fisico}|>' <|\emph{eventuali opzioni}|>;
\end{sas}
Leaving this as is:
\begin{sas}
libname corso '/projects/corsosas';
\end{sas}
\end{document}


\newcommand{\metastring}[1]{\PYG{l+s}{\PYGZsq{}<}\PYG{l+s}{\emph{#1}}\PYG{l+s}{>\PYGZsq{}}}and using|\metastring{percorso fisico}|. – egreg Aug 03 '17 at 10:14\sasstringemph:) – CarLaTeX Aug 03 '17 at 10:28