The time of their stay in Naples was favourable to musical interests. Simultaneously with the excellent representations of comic opera in the Teatro Nuovo, there was opened on May 30, the King's fête-day, the Grand Opera in San Carlo, {THE ITALIAN TOUR.} (124) for which Jomelli, Caffaro, and Ciccio di Majo were engaged; Anna de Amicis was prima donna, Aprile principal male singer. By a curious coincidence, Wolfgang was a witness of the first attempt made by Jomelli, who had left Stuttgart for Naples in 1768, to regain the favour of his countrymen. De Rogatis' opera "Armida Abbandonata," in which he made his reappearance, was designed to satisfy the higher claims of dramatic music, and to bring the results of his studies in Germany before the Italians, who were, however, slow to appreciate them. Wolfgang thought the opera fine, but too pedantic and old-fashioned for the theatre. This seems to have been the universal opinion; and later the increasing distaste to Jomelli's operas obliged the withdrawal of his "Iphigenia in Aulide," and the substitution of "Demofoonte" (November 4, 1770).[41] The Mozarts found Jomelli polite and friendly. Through him they became acquainted with the impresario Amadori, who offered Wolfgang a _libretto_ for San Carlo; but this, owing to his previous engagement in Milan, he was obliged to refuse, together with similar offers which had been made to him in Bologna and Rome. On June 25, they travelled with post-horses back to Rome. Through the fault of a clumsy postilion their carriage was upset; Leopold saved his son by springing out before the danger came; he himself sustained considerable injury to his leg. Wolfgang was so tired by the journey (they had driven twenty-seven hours without a stop), that after he had eaten a little he fell asleep in his chair and was undressed and put to bed by his father, without waking. This stay in Rome, during which they were present at the illumination of St. Peter's, at the delivery of Neapolitan tribute, and other ceremonies, brought Wolfgang a new distinction; he was invested by the Pope, in an {"RITTER MOZART"--BOLOGNA, 1770.} (125) audience of July 8, with the order of the Golden Spur, which the father announces, not without pride, as "a piece of good luck."[42] "You may imagine how I laugh," he writes, "to hear him called _Signor Cavaliere_." The honour apparently made little impression on Wolfgang. For some years his father insisted on his signing his compositions "Del Sign. Cavaliere W. A. Mozart," and advised him to wear his order in Paris; but later he let it drop, and one never hears of _Ritter Mozart_, whereas Gluck, who like Klopstock, wished to be outwardly recognised as the prophet of higher culture, was very tenacious of his dignity as a _Ritter_. Mozart was too simple-natured, and too essentially a musician, to set any store by outward distinctions.