Colorado couple leave the US for a rundown 400-year-old Italian tower above a medieval village they bought for just $21,000 ‘over a pizza and a handshake’

A Colorado couple fled the US for a 400-year-old Italian tower in a medieval village that cost them just $21,000.

Tom and Aileen White, 59 and 60, have been married for more than 18 years and share a shared passion for their love of European travel.

Tom, an adventure/action sports photographer, and Aileen, a real estate agent, are based in Boulder, Colorado, but they had dreamed of buying a house in Italy for years.

The couple made their dreams come true when Tom saw an advertisement online for a 400-year-old tower turned holiday home in the medieval village of Exilles in northern Italy.

There was no address in the advertisement, so Tom headed to Exilles, about an hour’s drive from Turin, to look for the property himself.

Exilles has only 250 inhabitants and is the location of the Exilles Fortress, which historically guarded the route between the Kingdom of France and the Duchy of Savoy.

Tom soon became interested in the charming village and managed to chat with some locals who helped him find the tower’s owners.

“They met us the next day and we bought the house after a handshake,” Aileen said.

The couple quickly made the decision to purchase the property in October 2017 for 19,000 euros (approximately $21,000).

Tom and Aileen faced a number of problems when trying to purchase their European retreat – mostly involving opening an Italian bank account, which required them to enlist the help of a supervising lawyer to assist them.

After the sale was finally completed, Tom boarded a plane to Italy to pick up the keys the Italian way: ‘over a pizza’.

“I arrived in a snowstorm and everything was gray and dark,” Tom said CNN.

‘The village is quite lively in the summer, but in the winter it is very quiet.

“I fell into a strange kind of despair where I thought, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’

Tom focused his energy on renovations and set to work upgrading the dusty old tower into a charming holiday home.

“The old kerosene heater worked for about five minutes,” Tom recalled.

When Aileen arrived, the couple found an architect for their project and then met the locals, who were all confused as to why they chose this little hidden gem as their new home.

‘The big question was: ‘Why are you here?’ Aileen explained. ‘This is a real working village where people live off the land and there is a lot of trade in vegetables, fruit and potatoes.

“So they asked, ‘Why here?’ And we kept saying, ‘Because it’s a magical place.'”

The renovation process cost the couple a total of about $94,000 and took about six months.

“It was quite habitable at first,” Tom said. “But we modernized it and made it very beautiful.”

Previously, the main floor of the house only had a small bathroom with just a sink and toilet, but the Winters upgraded it to a large bathroom with a full shower and laundry facilities.

The crowded old staircase was replaced by an open staircase to bring light into the building.

A brand new hot water system was installed, powered by a pellet stove.

They built a kitchen on the second floor of the house, with a beautiful balcony overlooking the historic village the previous kitchen converted into a living space.

The couple named the upgraded holiday home ‘Torre Piccolo’.

Since purchasing the property, they usually come four or five times a year and have built strong friendships with the villagers.

“The people in the village have embraced us like family,” Aileen says, recalling how they were initially known as “Li Americani.”

‘Everyone has been incredibly kind and patient with us. They appreciate that we love Exilles. They are quite proud of their village, and rightly so,” said Tom.