PORTOFERRAIO, Italy — He’s a prominent billionaire politician with a reputation for provocative comments, vulgar insults and sexual innuendo, to say nothing of a hairstyle that can’t be ignored.

Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee for president? Yes, but Italians could be forgiven if they had someone else in mind. The description could easily be applied to their former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

“Tocca a voi” is a comment Italians often make to Americans these days, which translates as “It is your turn.”

Europeans have been fascinated by Mr. Trump’s high-voltage campaign, but they are also concerned about it. An international poll taken last spring and published in June by the Pew Research Center found that 85 percent of those polled in 10 European countries had no confidence in Mr. Trump’s ability to do the right thing on the world stage.