[morzh]

Roy

Your wife is right (well, she has to be, she's a native speaker), the place names with "-sti" at hte end do not emphasize that last wovel.

Like their capital, București, is pronounced as "Boo-koo-resht' ", the "t" at the end slightly palatalized (softened).
This is why in the rest of the languages, in the spelling of the name of the capital, which is more or less phonetic, "i" is not even present:

Bucharest (English)
Бухарест (Boo-kha-rest - Russian)

Peculiarities of Romanian/Moldavian.

And this is my favorite website for checking pronunciations in all languages, Forvo.

https://forvo.com/search/tiganesti/

I remember I learned the words of Moldavian song, "Melancolie". wsas popular in the old country.

Eu nu mă-ntreb de unde vine, vine,
De unde doru-şi ia izvorul, dorul.
Mă luminez şi-mi pare bine, bine,
Când vine dorul, când dorul vine

Melancolie — dulce melodie,
Melancolie — misterios amor.
Melancolie, melancolie
Din armonia inimii cu dor.