There he stopped for some time, before he pursued his route to Rome.
The moment Petrarch heard of his arrival, he wrote to his Imperial Majesty in transports of joy.

"You are no longer," he said, "king of Bohemia.

I behold in you the king of the world, the Roman emperor, the true Caesar." The Emperor received this letter at Mantua, and in a few days sent Sacromore de Pomieres, one of his squires, to invite Petrarch to come and meet him, expressing the utmost eagerness to see him.
Petrarch could not resist so flattering an invitation; he was not to be deterred even by the unprecedented severity of the frost, and departed from Milan on the 9th of December; but, with all the speed that he could make, was not able to reach Mantua till the 12th.
The Emperor thanked him for having come to him in such dreadful weather, the like of which he had scarcely ever felt, even in Germany.

"The Emperor," says Petrarch, "received me in a manner that partook neither of imperial haughtiness nor of German etiquette.

We passed sometimes whole days together, from morning to night, in conversation, as if his Majesty had had nothing else to do.