In May 1779, Kelly travelled to Naples where, as protégé of Sir
William Hamilton, he enrolled with
Fenaroli at the
1537 Conservatorio Santa Maria di Loreto, with privileges. He began to attend operas and ballets, and received introductions at many noble houses, meeting
Domenico Cimarosa, Fenaroli's favourite pupil, at one. Hamilton gained him a meeting with the
King and
Queen of Naples, for whom he sang, and with Hamilton (a vulcanologist) he witnessed the August 1779 eruption of
Vesuvius. At Naples the male soprano
Giuseppe Aprile (1732–1813) (also a teacher of Cimarosa) offered him free tuition during a festival visit to
Sicily in Spring 1780. Kelly went first to
Gaeta, where he sang a
salve regina under Aprile, who continued to give him daily lessons and dinners: then to
Palermo, where he studied several hours a day as his voice dropped to a tenor. He was soon singing the tenor arias which formed the original repertoire of
Giacomo Davide and
Giovanni Ansani (1744–1826). With Aprile he visited many noble houses and made his first regular Festival appearance at the
Chiesa Grande, Palermo, in a motet of
Gennario Maro. Aprile taught him the work of
Metastasio and other Italian poets and, their season ended, told him he was now ready to sing in any theatre in Europe. He wrote letters of introduction to Andrea Campigli, impresario of the
Florence Teatro La Pergola, and obtained Kelly's place on a ship for
Livorno. "Under his care and patronage," said Aprile, "you cannot fail of success because you have the peculiar distinction of being the only public scholar I ever taught." At Livorno, Kelly first met
Stephen and
Nancy Storace, who, aged 15, was then prima donna of the comic opera there. Stephen Storace helped him mount a concert, and with funds he went on to
Pisa, met the tenor Giuseppe Viganoni (1754-1823), appeared at the theatre with soprano Clementina Baglioni, and dined with the violinist Soderini. At Florence, Campigli gave him a spring season as first comic tenor at the Teatro Nuovo, and at Lord Cowper's house he heard
Pietro Nardini play
Tartini's sonata. He made a successful debut in
Il francese in Italia, coached by the actor-tenor Filippo Laschi), opposite the charming Signora Lortinella (called "Ortabella"), and Andrea Morigi as primo buffo. He was in lodgings with the composer (1755–1826): the male soprano (a famous
cantabile singer) gave Kelly some lessons. The offer of a five-year contract from Linley for
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, arranged by Stephen Storace, was blocked by Kelly's father. Out of money, he still managed to attend operas and concerts and met the singer and actress
Benini, who took him on an autumn tour to
Graz. He appeared in
Pasquale Anfossi's
La vera costanza, and for the Carnival opposite Benini in
Grétry's
Zémire et Azor. He returned to Venice for Easter and was recruited for a
Brescia production of Cimarosa's '''', which he rehearsed and began performing with Ortabella, but the jealous sponsor-manager became murderous, and Kelly escaped to
Verona, slipping out of the theatre in mid-performance. After a benefit concert at Verona, at
Treviso he met the 'greatest reputed dilettante singer in Europe',
Teresa de Petris. She invited Kelly to sing with her in Anfossi's new oratorio, and her consort
Count Vidiman engaged him for four months, sending him first to
Parma and
Colorno to present himself to the
Archduchess, for whom he sang and played billiards for a week. He returned to Venice in October for Vidiman, where Nancy Storace was appearing in an opera of
Vicente Martín y Soler. When his contract was completed, through Countess Rosenberg he (and Storace) received an invitation to join an Italian company then being assembled to occupy a permanent residency at the court of Emperor
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor at
Vienna. ==Austria, 1783–1787==