Ciao,

I'm retiring in the next couple of weeks and have been told by the Thai embassy in Rome that getting a retirement visa is not all that difficult. But I would also like to work in Thailand if possible.

My main question is can you get a work permit with a retirement visa?

Thanks for any help that you can provide. ::

A retirement visa means you can't work (your retired, right?). Thats the way the Thais see it. You could work illegally. Note that there is very little work available in Thailand for foreigners, apart from teaching English (and Italian?).

Along the same lines.... If I was to come in on a Non-Immigrant Marriage visa, would I be able to legally seek work?

You can seek work at any time but once you find it is when you need to obtain the proper non-immigrant visa and work permit.  A retirement visa is a form of non-immigrant visa but just not the form that allows the granting of a work permit (although there could be exceptions as have never checked into it closely).

Holders of Non immigrant 'O' visas (marriage/children) can get WPs, its just that its not normally done, and you might find you spend a lot of time at immigration getting it sorted. It seems logical to me that if you have an 'O' visa, you should be able to work here (to support the wife/Thai children), but some dumb ass in Immigration may not see it that way and make the process difficult. The least problematic route is a Non immigrant 'B'; the normal route to getting a WP.