Théodore Tronchin, Guillaume du Tillot, Melchiorre Cesarotti, Giacomo Filippo Durazzo, Pietro Verri, Giammaria Mazzucchelli and Francesco Maria Zanotti were among his correspondents.

There he wrote the satirical poem Le raccolte (1751), in which he called for a reform of the Italian poetic tradition, aimed at both the literary elite and the public.

The year following, he journeyed again to France, along with the eldest of his pupils; and during this excursion he wrote his famous Lettere dieci di Virgilio agli Arcadi, which were published at Venice.

Bettinelli was also a poet of arcadic verse, collected in his Versi sciolti of 1758 and inspired by Frugoni and Algarotti, and of some tragedies including Gionata (1774), Demetrio Poliorcete (1758), Serse (1764) that were put on for the jesuit theater.

The siege of Mantua by the French compelled him to leave the city, and he retired to Verona, where he formed an intimate friendship with the chevalier Ippolito Pindemonte.

[1] Among his main works is an influential sketch of the progress of literature, science, fine arts, industry, and customs in Italy, originally titled Risorgimento negli studi, nelle, Arti e ne' Costumi dopo di Mille (The Revival of Italy in Scholarship, Arts and Customs After 1000, 1773).