Before they fell in love with each other, Aileen and Tom Winter had already fallen head over heels in Italy.
The US couple, who have been married for around 18 years, have spent a lot of time in the European country over the years, separately and together, with Aileen returning regularly for month-long visits.
“I just had a passion for Italy,” Aileen tells CNN Travel. “I made a bunch of Italian friends all over the country.”
The couple, based in Boulder, Colorado, had long fantasized about buying a home in Italy, gazing longingly at real estate windows during their many visits.
But it wasn't until 2016 that they began to seriously pursue this prospect, focusing their attention on the area near the Susa Valley in the Piedmont region of northern Italy.
After about a year of actively looking, Tom, who previously worked in action sports, came across an online listing for a 400-year-old tower-turned-cottage in the medieval village of Exilles that piqued his interest.
Italian dream
With no address given, he decided to head to Exilles, which is about a short drive from Turin, to try and track it down himself.
Arriving, Tom was immediately impressed by the village, which has a population of around 250, and quickly spotted the unusual house.
After talking to some locals, he managed to find the owners and began to convince them to sell him the property.
“They met us the next day and we bought the house on a handshake,” explains Aileen, who runs a property consultancy.
They bought the tower for 19,000 euros (about $21,000) in October 2017.
The couple say they ran into some minor issues during the sale process, particularly opening a bank account in Italy, but were able to overcome that hurdle with the help of an Italian-based lawyer.
Once the sale was finalized in early 2018, Tom flew to Italy from the US, “picked up the keys over the pizza in Turin” and began the process of converting the four-storey house into a suitable holiday home for him and Aileen.
“I arrived in a blizzard and everything was gray and dark,” he says. “The village is quite lively in the summer, but very quiet in the winter.
“I fell into a strange sort of despair, where [I was thinking]”Oh my god, what did I do?”
Fortunately, a visit from a friend lifted his spirits and he focused his energies on ripping out the old carpet and linoleum and cleaning the house in order to prepare it for the renovation.
“The old kerosene stove ran for about five minutes,” he recalls.
'magical place'
Once Aileen arrived and the couple found an architect for the project, they quickly got to know the locals, who were surprised that they chose to buy a house in Exilles, which is close to the Gran Bosco National Park.
“The big question was, 'Why are you here?' Eileen explains. “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 would ask, 'Why here?' And we kept saying, 'Because it's a magical place.'”
According to Winters, the renovation process took about six months, with a total cost of about $94,000.
“It was kind of livable to begin with,” explains Tom. “But we modernized it and made it really nice.”
They converted the ground floor of the house, which previously had a small bathroom with just a sink and toilet, into a large bathroom with a shower and laundry facilities.
They also replaced the staircase with an open staircase to bring more light into the property and added a new hot water system powered by a pellet stove.
In addition, the Winters have built a new kitchen on the second level of the house, which has a balcony, while the old kitchen has been converted into a living room.
“It's a very small place,” adds Tom. “There's only so much you can do. So it's a fairly easy process compared to some of the projects that people are involved in.”
In 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 within the village and say they have been warmly welcomed.
“The people in the village have embraced us like family,” says Eileen, recalling how they were originally known as “Li Americani.”
They have since bought a second property in Exilles and say the strength of the community has been a huge part of the village's appeal.
“Everyone was incredibly kind and patient with us,” says Tom. “They appreciate that we love Exilles. They are very proud of their small village and rightly so.
“It's an interesting place surrounded by beautiful balance in nature and very well preserved. So they should be proud.”
The couple have developed a close friendship with the previous owner of the house, whom Eileen describes as one of her “dearest friends in Italy”.
“Her son just had a baby and we went to visit,” he adds. “So a beautiful friendship came out of that purchase.”
As few people in Exilles speak English, Aileen and Tom have made a huge effort to learn the language by enrolling in immersive language courses at language schools.
However, the Winters admit that Aileen has picked up the language more easily over time, which has not gone unnoticed by the locals.
“I was telling them I was going to language school for a few weeks,” Eileen says of a recent conversation with some of their neighbors.
Slower tempo
And the first question was: Why doesn't Tom go? He needs it more than you do.”
While they are very much in love with the Exilles, the couple admit that there are some aspects of life in a small Italian village that they have had to adapt to.
“We've learned to understand that if you show up at the grocery store on a Tuesday at 10am, it might be closed because that particular store has its own hours,” says Aileen.
“And sometimes you'll go to a restaurant at eight o'clock at night and it's closed because there's a family birthday party. So you just have to understand and be adaptable.”
According to the Winters, the slower pace of life has helped them become less “stressed” about things.
“It's a good adjustment. You learn to slow down and become a bit more relaxed about the processes,” says Tom. “And that was beautiful. We really disconnect when we go there.”
Although the Winters say they'd like to eventually be able to spend half the year in Piedmont, they don't have long-stay visas and tourist visas only allow them to stay for 90 days at a time.
However, Tom believes it will be a long time before they are ready to consider settling in Italy permanently, noting that they wish to keep their properties in the US.
“I don't think we're there yet,” he says, adding that there are some things about life in Italy that they would find “challenging” to deal with permanently.
“It would be difficult for me to undergo the notorious full-time Italian bureaucracy and the tax implications for us. So the ongoing conversation we're having is [about] how would that work.”
For now, the Winters are working to be able to spend four or five months a year in Italy, and say they'd like to bring their cat and spend more time planting in their garden.
The couple is sometimes asked for advice by other US families hoping to move to Italy, and they say they always advise them to take their time to find the destination that suits them best, noting that while Exilles was perfect for them, “it's not” it's not right for everyone.”
“This 'Under the Tuscan Sun' dream that people come up with is really, really cool,” says Aileen.
“Well, if you have a dream to go and live in Provence. Or if you want to be in Tuscany or Spain somewhere, then go for it.
“Don't just talk about it. Go make it happen. But I encourage people to seriously find their place.”
That sentiment is echoed by Tom, who stresses that while he wouldn't advise anyone to buy a house on a handshake, he's excited about how things are going.
“That started an idea [that we thought] it could be something fun,” he says. “But what really surprised us is how it was an investment in our souls. And how kind people are.
“ROI is really that human experience. This exceeded any expectation we could have ever had.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the couple's family name in the first paragraph.
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