Originally Posted by Bevdeforges

You may want to take a look at the EU website for its pages on Living and Working in Italy. Start here European Commission - Your Europe - Citizens since you are both citizens.

In general, without any work history in Italy (or anywhere in the EU) you probably won't be eligible for pension or health care benefits, so you should probably start looking into some form of private health insurance. But you may want to contact one of the national health care funds for more information.

It is sometimes possible to get credit for years worked elsewhere, if Italy has a social security treaty with Australia - but I think you would need to work for a couple of years in Italy for that to be of any help. Finding a job over the age of 50 could be a real trick (unless you are a politician, that is ).
Cheers,
Bev