Giuseppe Tucci was one of the most important intellectuals in 20th century Italy, a man that has decisively shaped Asian studies in our Country and in Europe. Though deeply diverging from Mircea Eliade in terms of the methodology applied to the study of religion, he had a deep personal relation with the Rumanian scholar, with whom he shared a conservative view of the world. In this presentation, I will analyse how this methodological dichotomy, tempered by personal friendship and intellectual esteem, influenced the later development of Iranian studies in Italy. I will do so through an analysis of Gherardo Gnoli's methodology, deeply rooted in a philological-historical approach, and apparently far from Eliade's phenomenology. Moreover, I will also briefly outline the influence that a third giant of religious studies, Georges Dumezil, had on the Italian school of Iranian studies. Scholars working in and around IsMEO, the institute founded by Giuseppe Tucci that experienced a second life after the end of World War II are all indebted towards Mircea Eliade's teaching, though most of them have stuck to a more radical historical understanding of religions and specifically of Iranian religions.