In November, 1772, we find our two travelers in Italy again. The opera of Silla had to be written for Milan. And now, what the father desired above all, was to see his son anchored there in a permanent position. He first made some arrangements in Florence. He could not feel at home in Salzburg after the appointment of the new archbishop. The latter was, indeed, friendly to intellectual progress, and opposed to the gloomy rule of the priesthood, but, at the same time, he was himself too much of a tyrant to be able to bless his people by diffusing prosperity among them, or to win their love. His mode of government could not be acceptable to the independent spirit of the father any more than to the liberty-loving genius of the son; and this all the more, as he had no real feeling for, or understanding of art, or of the sovereign rule of genius. And so it happened, that the father, even during his journey, found it hard to banish what he called his “Salzburg thoughts” from his mind. He was disappointed because he accomplished nothing in Florence, and this added to his trouble. But he now met with compensation in Milan. In his letters, Wolfgang says: “It is impossible for me to write much, because, in the first place, I know nothing to write about, and in the second place, I do not know what I am writing; for all my thoughts are with my opera, and I am in danger of writing a whole aria to you instead of a letter.” The performers were very well satisfied this time too, and what an effect the work must have produced is attested by a mishap which occurred to the principal male voice. He had unwittingly provoked the prima donna to a fit of laughter, which confused him so much that he began to gesticulate himself in a most unmannerly way. The audience, whose patience had been taxed to the utmost by being obliged to wait for the archduke, who lived in the city, caught the contagion, and began to laugh likewise. Spite of this, the opera proved victoriously successful the first time it was performed, and was repeated more than twenty times. This closed Mozart’s real work for the Italians. He would certainly have been called upon to do much more in that country, but the Archbishop of Salzburg refused him leave of absence, saying that he “did not want to see his people going begging about the country.” And yet Mozart himself said subsequently: “When I think it all over, I have nowhere received so many honors, and nowhere been so highly esteemed as in Italy. A man has good credit indeed when he has written operas in Italy.” And, in reality, it was due to his success in Italy that Mozart was, two years after this, called to Munich to write the music for another Italian opera. This was the charming _opera buffa_ (comic opera), the _La finta giardiniera_; and here Jerome could not refuse his permission; his relations, personal and official with the neighboring elector’s court, did not allow him to do so.