My head is spinning from looking around everywhere and reading so many different forum entries...so I'm just going to ask and hope somebody out there knows the answer:

I am a US citizen presently living in Padova, Italy. My girlfriend is an English gal living and working in Padova, Italy. We want to get married and remain living in Italy. We are both confused, however, as to how citizenship would work.

I know that for reasons of visiting my family and friends we can have her apply for a green card in the states or can just fly over with her current EU stuff. How do things work on my side of things? How do I gain rights to work in the EU (Italy in particular)? Do I apply for a spouse visa in Britain and somehow gain EU acknowledgement from there?

I can't seem to find any truly straight answers or others who have this sort of scenario. Any help would be greatly, GREATLY appreciated. Thank you.