Tom and Aileen White, from Boulder, Colo., have been married for over 18 years and share a passion for European travel. Tom — an adventure/action sports photographer — and Aileen — a real estate agent — had been dreaming of purchasing a home in Italy for years. The couple made their dreams a reality when Tom saw an online listing for a 400-year-old tower-turned-vacation home in the medieval village of Exilles in Northern Italy. The couple took a liking to the small village of 250, about an hour outside of Turin. They made the quick decision to buy the property for $21,000. They managed to find an architect to take on renovations and work on upgrading the dusty old tower into a charming home. The process cost the couple around $94,000 in total and took 6 months to complete. They named their new home “Torre Piccolo.” The Whites say the people of the village have embraced them like family and they couldn’t be happier.
