Obtaining Italian residence

Hello everybody

I have a very specific question here for any citizens of other EU countries living in Italy who've had experince of getting (or trying to get) a certificato di residenza from their local town hall.

I'm a UK national and recently bought a house in Italy, hoping to live here and carrying on working on a freelance basis as I'd been doing previously in Austria. However, since I moved in last year over 18 months have passed and I've made no progress whatsoever clearing the first hurdle, which is obtaining a residence certificate. Basically I've been advised that there are two possible routes: either you get a partita IVA, or you deposit around 6k in an Italian current account and take out private health insurance. But if you try to open a bank account, or obtain a partita IVA, the first question you're always asked is: Have you got a residence certificate? I've also tried opening a bank account online, by the way, which is even more surreal: it seems that, to open an Italian bank account, you need an Italian bank account.

Has anyone else had similar experiences, and/or found a way to break this vicious circle? I've tried contacting both private immigration consultants and the British consulate, but none of them so far has been able to offer any workable solutions. Would be interested from hearing from anyone out there who's in the same boat!

Best wishes,

Peter