why were italians obsessed with...

Italians and Germans both love the Wild West. The Germans were inspired by the works of an author named Karl May and I read that the Italians were inspired by the visits of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in the 1890s. I'm a mix of German and Italian. Maybe that's why I like Westerns so much.

Italian exploitation cinema followed what was popular in Hollywood films. Look at the major Italian genres and you can see what they were spawned from. It was not only westerns, but many other genres like sword and sandals, crime, spy, combat and horror films just to name a few.