In Renaissance Europe, three Italy confront each other: an Italy of the Pope, an Italy of the Emperor, and an Italy of the « Most Christian ». Having lost its political autonomy, the nobility of the peninsula is trying to play another political role within these superpowers wanting to exercise their domination on the south of the Alps. The article examines two paradigmatic trajectories, that of the Veronese Ludovico di Canossa, ambassador of the King of France in Venice, and that of the Piedmontese Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara, chancellor of the Emperor. Despite their belonging to two opposing camps, the two Italians seem to pursue the same objective : to create the conditions for a political in-between between Valois and Habsburg which makes possible a form of autonomy for the peninsula despite the weakness of its state structures, and, for a religious in-between, halfway between Rome and Wittenberg.