Potholes are definitely bad news for suspension components and for tires, and the effect is even more pronounced with smaller wheels & tires.
If you are driving a larger vehicle with 17" (or larger) wheels/tires you have to encounter a really large pothole for the tire to sink into the hole. You will feel the pothole, but to a certain extent, the larger wheel/tire will ride over the hole.
On the other hand, if you have small tires–as do Fiats, Smart cars, and other very small vehicles–even a relatively small pothole can–literally–swallow the tire, thus leading to greater impact on the suspension components and tires.
Large wheels/tires can–to some extent–ride over the smaller potholes, while small wheels/tires are swallowed by them.
I meant do you corner hard or gently ? If you bought it because it is a zippy little car and you enjoy flinging around curves and corners briskly then this tire wear would be normal. If you take no joy in cornering then your tire wear is excessive and you should look for a cause.
As far as the tire cupping, this happens on the rear tires of front drive cars with lightly loaded rear tires. If the rear tires are left in the rear too long they vibrate excessively when moved to the front,
These cars need the tires rotated frequently (5000 miles or less) or not at all.
The service interval for the Fiat 500 is 8,000 miles or every six months according to the manual available online from Fiat. But it also suggests rotating the tires sooner if you start to notice uneven wear.
500’s are known for their lousy tire life, but it sounds as if yours is due to serious bearing/suspension problems. NEVER pass up an opportunity to rotate tires on a Fiat. The dealer rotates tires with every oil change, but 5K would not be too soon.
Read the manual because 500’s use a different rotation pattern than many tire places use. (Mark your tires w/ chalk to make sure they did it correctly.) The 500e rotates side to side (fronts stay on front). Mine uses the X pattern, with fronts moving back.
I think front-to-rear swaps is for directional tires, and became popular for early radials. Dodge recommends front-back, rear-cross for many of their later FWD cars to balance wear.