Somewhere I have an article I saved years ago, that mentioned some Scots troops who settled in some Italian/Swiss Alpine region around the 16th C. -- marrying with the locals, tweaking the culture.
Apparently there's some linguistic evidence to substantiate this story.
A really tenuous (maybe fatuous) opera connection is the use of a "William Tell" opera tune for the oldish pop song "Scottish Soldier" (or whatever it was titled; you know, "...green hills of Tyrol".)
They say all songs are folk songs....
Slainte!