I just recalled that felis told us Knobelsdorff is travelling in Italy in the mid 1730s as well, i.e. a bit later, and while he doesn't get more south than Rome, he was in Florence. (And wasn't impressed with the opera there.) But felis didn't say whether he met any Ruspanti!

Talking to pets: precisely! And I see we're of a mind re: authorial bias regarding wives who refuse to let their unloving and unloved husbands call the shots.