This article examines the first tour of Buffalo Bill's Wild West in Italy and the so-called ‘sfida dei butteri’ (the challenge of the Italian cowboys of the Pontine marshes), which took place in Rome in March 1890. Analysing nineteenth-century Italian newspapers and photographs, I demonstrate that populist, anti-capitalist, and anti-American sentiments marked the Italian media's responses to the American show. In the historical context of Italy's socioeconomic crisis and of the first phase of colonial expansion in Africa (1870–1922), the mixed reception of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, amplified by the media event of the sfida, shaped the fate of the western genre in Italy.

本文研究了布法罗比尔在意大利的狂野西部的第一次旅行，以及 1890 年 3 月在罗马举行的所谓的“sfida dei butteri”（庞廷沼泽地意大利牛仔的挑战）。通过分析19世纪的意大利报纸和照片，我证明了民粹主义、反资本主义和反美情绪是意大利媒体对美国节目的反应的标志。在意大利社会经济危机和非洲殖民扩张第一阶段（1870-1922 年）的历史背景下，布法罗·比尔 （Buffalo Bill） 的《狂野西部》（Wild West） 的褒贬不一，被 sfida 的媒体事件放大，塑造了意大利西部片类型的命运。