In another letter from Vaucluse, he says:  “I rise at midnight; I go out at break of day; I study in the fields as in my library; I read, I write, I dream; I struggle against indolence, luxury, and pleasure.  I wander all day among the arid mountains, the fresh valleys, and the deep caverns.  I walk much on the banks of the Sorgue, where I meet no one to distract me.  I recall the past.  I deliberate on the future; and, in this contemplation, I find a resource against my solitude.”  In the same letter he avows that he could accustom himself to any habitation in the world, except Avignon.  At this time he was meditating to recross the Alps.

Early in September, 1352, the Cardinal of Boulogne departed for Paris, in order to negotiate a peace between the Kings of France and England.  Petrarch went to take his leave of him, and asked if he had any orders for Italy, for which he expected soon to set out.  The Cardinal told him that he should be only a month upon his journey, and that he hoped to see him at Avignon on his return.  He had, in fact, kind views with regard to Petrarch.  He wished to procure for him some good establishment in France, and wrote to him upon his route, “Pray do not depart yet.  Wait until I return, or, at least, until I write to you on an important affair that concerns yourself.”  This letter, which, by the way, evinces that our poet’s circumstances were not independent of church promotion, changed the plans of Petrarch, who remained at Avignon nearly the whole of the months of September and October.

During this delay, he heard constant reports of the war that was going on between the Genoese and the Venetians.  In the spring of the year 1352, their fleets met in the Propontis, and had a conflict almost unexampled, which lasted during two days and a tempestuous night.  The Genoese, upon the whole, had the advantage, and, in revenge for the Greeks having aided the Venetians, they made a league with the Turks.  The Pope, who had it earnestly at heart to put a stop to this fatal war, engaged the belligerents to send their ambassadors to Avignon, and there to treat for peace.  The ambassadors came; but a whole month was spent in negotiations which ended in nothing.  Petrarch in vain employed his eloquence, and the Pope his conciliating talents.  In these circumstances, Petrarch wrote a letter to the Genoese government, which does infinite credit to his head and his heart.  He used every argument that common sense or humanity could suggest to show the folly of the war, but his arguments were thrown away on spirits too fierce for reasoning.