Italy’s American football league played its championship game on Saturday.

In Toledo.

Toledo, Ohio.

It was as if some American sumo enthusiasts took their show to Tokyo, or an amateur baguette maker tried to set up shop on the streets of Paris.

Still, in the state where the National Football League was born, eager Italian part-timers playing for the Ancona Dolphins and the Firenze Guelfi suited up for a game to decide their country’s title.

And a few thousand Americans turned up in the summer football doldrums between college and N.F.L. seasons and paid to see them.

It looked a lot like a typical American football game with tailgating, coaches on the sidelines, refs in striped outfits and players banging heads after a touchdown.