Australian moving to Italy with British spouse

[marisaw]

Hi, I'm British and my husband is Australian. I lived in Australia for 30 years - we're currently back in the UK, he got his spouse visa last May. We're not settling and have decided we'd like to have a year in Italy before heading back to Oz, however we're bewildered by the process involved.

My oh is lucky because as an Aussie, he doesn't need a visa to enter any Schengen country for up to 3 months.
If I understand it right, we'd just go to Italy and then register with the authorities, prove we can afford to stay and that we've got health insurance, and then we're allowed to stay while the Italian bureaucracy grinds through the process. I can't believe it's really as simple as that?

Potential problems - we are semi-retired so neither of us would be working, would they be happy if we had sufficient savings? And would we have to sign up for a long-term lease on a house (which would be difficult if we only want to stay for a year?).

Another thing - my husband has his UK visa in his passport, but the wording just says "multiple entry" for two years, not right of residence. That's the normal wording for the UK, as I understand it, but I could see an Italian bureaucrat not believing he has the right of residence in the EU. So does he need to get a UK residence card? Or does the fact of whether he's entitled to live in the UK have no relevance at all?