This American couple bought a 400-year-old Italian tower with a handshake

(CNN) — Before they fell in love, Aileen and Tom White were already in love with Italy.

The American couple, married for about 18 years, spent a lot of time together and separately in the European country, with Aileen often returning to spend a month.

“I was passionate about Italy,” Allyn tells CNN Travel. “I have made many Italian friends all over the country.”

The couple, who live in Boulder, Colorado, had long fantasized about buying a home in Italy, looking longingly at real estate store windows during their many visits.

But it wasn’t until 2016 that they began to take a serious interest in the prospect, focusing their attention on an area near the Susa Valley in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.

After about a year of actively searching, Tom, who previously worked in action sports, found an online ad for a 400-year-old tower that had been converted into a holiday home in the medieval village of Exiles, which piqued his interest.

Italian dream

Since he was given no address, he decided to head to Exiles, located about a drive from Turin, and try to find the property himself.

Upon arrival, Tom is immediately impressed by the town, with about 250 residents, and quickly discovers an unusual home.

After talking to some locals, he found the owners and set out to convince them to sell the property.

“They welcomed us the next day and we bought the house on a handshake,” explains Aileen, who runs a real estate consultancy.

They bought the tower in October 2017 for 19,000 euros (about US$21,000).

The couple say they encountered some minor issues during the sale process, particularly regarding opening an Italian bank account, but were able to overcome this hurdle with the help of an Italy-based lawyer.

Once the sale was finalized in early 2018, Tom flew to Italy, “picked up the keys while eating pizza in Turin” and began the process of transforming the four-story house into a suitable retirement home for him and Aileen.

“I arrived in the middle of a snowstorm and everything was gray and dark,” he says. “The city is very lively in the summer, but very quiet in the winter. I fell into a strange kind of despair, where (I thought), ‘My God, what have I done?'”

Fortunately, a visit from a friend boosted her spirits and she focused her energies on ripping out the old carpet and linoleum and cleaning the house in preparation for the renovation.

“The old kerosene stove worked for about five minutes,” he recalls.

“A Magical Place”

Once they arrived in Alain and the couple found an architect for the project, they soon met the locals, who were surprised that they had chosen to buy a house in Exiles near Grand Bosco National Park.

“The big question was, ‘Why are they here?'” Allyn explains. “It’s a real working town where people live off the land and there’s a lot of trade in vegetables, fruit and potatoes. They asked us why we were here. And we told them: ‘Because it’s a magical place.’ “

According to Winters, the renovation process took about six months, and the total cost was about $94,000.

“In the beginning it was more or less livable,” explains Tom. “But we modernized it and left it very beautiful.”

They converted the ground floor of the house, which previously had only a small bathroom with a sink and toilet, into a shower and laundry space.

They replaced the staircase with an open one to let more light into the house, and they added a new hot water system powered by a pellet stove.

In addition, Winters built a new kitchen on the second level of the house, which has a balcony, while the old kitchen was converted into a living room.

“It’s a very small house,” adds Tom. “There’s not a lot you can do. So it’s a very simple process compared to the projects that people get into.”

Over the years since they bought the property, which they named Torre Piccolo, the couple, who visit Piedmont four or five times a year, have built strong friendships in the town and say they have been warmly welcomed.

“The townspeople have welcomed us like family,” says Eileen, recalling how they were initially known as “Lee American”.

They have since bought another property in Exiles, and say the strength of the community is a big part of the town’s appeal.

“Everyone has been incredibly kind and patient with us,” says Tom. “They appreciate that we love expats. They are very proud of their small town, and rightly so. It’s an interesting place surrounded by a beautiful balance of nature, and it’s really well preserved. So proud of them. should be.”

The couple have developed a close friendship with the house’s previous owner, whom Aline describes as her “dearest friends in Italy”.

“His son had just had a baby and we went to see him,” he adds. “So a beautiful friendship emerged from this purchase.”

Since few people in Exiles speak English, Eileen and Tom have made great efforts to learn the language, enrolling in language immersion courses at language schools.

However, Winters admits that Aileen is learning the language more easily, which has not gone unnoticed by the locals.

“I told them I was going to language school for a few weeks,” Allin says of a recent conversation with some of her neighbors.

Slow motion

“And the first question was, ‘Why doesn’t Tom go? He needs it more than you do.'”

Although they are very much in love with the Exiles, the couple admits that there are some aspects of life in a small Italian town that they have had to accept.

“We’ve learned to understand that if you go to the grocery store at 10 a.m. on a Tuesday, it might be closed because those are the specific store’s own hours,” Allyn says.

“And sometimes you go to a restaurant at eight o’clock at night and it’s closed, because there’s a family birthday party. So you have to understand and adapt.”

According to Winters, the slower pace of life has helped him be less “uptight.”

“It’s a good adaptation. You learn to slow down a bit and relax with the processes,” says Tom. “And it was beautiful. We really disconnect when we go there.”

Although Winters says he would like to spend half the year in Piedmont, he does not have a long-term visa and the tourist visa only allows him to stay for 90 days at a time.

However, Tom believes it will be a long time before they can consider settling permanently in Italy, and points out that they would like to keep their properties in the United States.

“I don’t think we’re there yet,” he says, adding that there are some things about life in Italy that will be “difficult” for him to deal with permanently.

“It would be difficult for me to be subject full-time to the notorious Italian bureaucracy and the taxation implications for us. So we are having ongoing conversations (about) how that will work.”

At the moment, Winters is working on spending four or five months a year in Italy, and he says he’ll spend more time bringing in his cat and planting his garden.

He is sometimes asked for advice by other American families looking to move to Italy, and he says he always advises them to take their time to find the best destination, noting that while Exile is ideal for them, “it’s not right for them. Everyone person.” world”.

“That ‘under the Tuscan sun’ dream that people have is so cool,” says Allyn.

“So if you dream of going live in Provence. Or if you want to live in Tuscany or somewhere in Spain, do it. Don’t just talk about it. Make it happen. But I encourage people to seriously look at your place.

Tom shares this sentiment and emphasizes that, while he wouldn’t advise anyone to buy a house on a handshake, he’s happy with how it all turned out.

“This started as an idea (that we thought) could be something fun,” he says. “But what impressed us the most is the investment in our soul. And how friendly the people are. The return on investment is the human experience. It exceeded all our expectations.”