The couple, who are both English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers, met while working in Vietnam in 2014. Bustling Ho Chi Minh City was a far cry from the suburbs of Chicago, where Knighten, 38, grew up.
But the move made sense for Knighten.
"I need to see new things, and my wanderlust needs to be satiated," she told Business Insider.
After a few years in Asia, Knighten and Cordier, who is 46, got teaching jobs in the UAE with annual salaries just shy of $70,000.
"Making $1,500 a month was not going to cut it for the rest of our lives," she said.
They decided to save for a down payment on a house in Chicago, where the typical home sells for about $350,000, according to Realtor.com.
It would have been tough, even with their new salaries, as many young Americans struggle to buy homes amid a challenging housing market with low supply, high prices, and relatively high mortgage rates — but it wouldn't have been impossible.
Nevertheless, a fateful European road trip in 2018 led Knighten and Cordier to abandon their plans. Take a look.
Knighten and Cordier fell in love with a lakeside town in northern Italy.
Lago Iseo is in Northern Italy, close to the Alps.
Andrew Mayovskyy/Shutterstock
As teachers, Knighten and Cordier get summers off. In 2018, they spent it driving a rundown car that cost £250, or around $315, on a road trip through Europe.
Eventually, the couple ended up in Italy.
After a brief stay in San Remo, a coastal city they found too touristy, they found a travel blog with a photo of Monte Isola, an island in the middle of a lake close to the Alps.
The couple drove to the lake and stayed for a few days, getting to know the area and meeting locals.
The island in the middle of Lago Iseo is called Monte Isola.
trabantos/Shutterstock
Knighten and Cordier booked a small bed-and-breakfast on Monte Isola, a roughly five-square-mile island dotted with small villages in the middle of Lago Iseo, a glacier lake surrounded by lush green mountains.
They were awestruck — and shocked an island this beautiful wasn't better known.
"We've traveled all over the world together, through South America, the Middle East, and Asia," Knighten said. "And this place blows our minds."
At a small bar on the island, Cordier, whom Knighten describes as "gregarious," approached a few locals to ask what there was to do.
"They were like, 'We're actually going to a party tonight on a boat. Do you want to come?'" Knighten said.
The couple went and ended up making lasting friendships.
Within days, Knighten and Cordier were scouting properties on the island and even considered buying a pig shed.
The pig shed had been slightly modernized, but no one had ever lived there.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
Knighten said she and Cordier had nearly saved $40,000 to put toward a down payment on a house in Chicago, even though that sum could only buy them a property "not in a great neighborhood."
But stunned by the lake's beauty, Knighten and Cordier were curious about the cost of buying a home there. Quickly, they realized they could afford a fixer-upper in Lago Iseo with the cash they already had in their bank accounts.
On that first trip, Knighten and Cordier toured two properties for sale.
One was an old pig shed listed for €34,000, or around $36,000. They seriously considered converting it into a tiny home but decided against it because it was too remote and would have cost too much money to fix up.
Undeterred, they came back in 2019 and found a house for sale for €25,000, or $27,000.
The house was listed at nearly half of what a down payment on a property in Chicago would have cost the couple.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
Knighten and Cordier returned to Monte Isola on a house-hunting mission in the summer of 2019.
They eventually found a house listed for €25,000, around $27,000.
"It didn't have any photos of the interior. It was one of those with one photo of the outside of the house," she said. "You're like, 'Is this a bait property?'"
Thankfully, it wasn't, but they were told other buyers had beaten them to the punch.
But when those buyers fell through, the couple went to see it.
The house was beautiful but had an "eerie" feel because the previous owner had suddenly died.
The main bedroom prior to renovations.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
The previous owner, who died a few years before Knighten and Cordier came to Lago Iseo, primarily used the home for vacations.
Walking in for the first time, Knighten said it seemed that the owner's death was unexpected.
"There were nightgowns hung in the wardrobe, a toothbrush in the bathroom, salt and oil and stuff in the kitchen," she said. "You almost felt like you were trespassing."
Even though it was a little "eerie," Knighten and Cordier fell in love with the house, which had a kitchen and a multipurpose room on the ground floor and two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor.
Unlike the pig shed, it was closer to the lake and public transportation.
It needed a lot of work, but the couple ended up putting up a €500, or $540, deposit the day they saw it.
The couple were all in on their Italian fixer-upper.
Courtesy of Paul Cordier and Kristina Knighten
Knighten and Cordier signed an agreement to buy the house in July 2019 and put down a €500, or $540, good-faith deposit.
At the time, they were thinking of using it as a summer house, as Knighten said they didn't think they could afford to move to Italy full-time given her $730-a-month student loan payment and how much less they thought teachers made in Italy.
The plan was to continue living in the UAE and visit Italy in the summers, when Cordier, who worked in construction before going into teaching, could gradually renovate the house.
But, yet again, the plan changed.
When the couple got married in 2022, their families got a chance to see the magic of the lake.
Cordier and Knighten got married on Monto Isola four years after they visited it for the first time.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
Knighten said she and Cordier got engaged before their first trip to Italy in 2018 but had never given much thought to when or where they'd actually tie the knot. That changed when they saw Lago Iseo.
"That's the first time we kind of got excited about 'Oh yeah, let's get married, let's have a wedding,'" she said.
After a delay due to COVID-19, they finally hosted their wedding in Italy in 2022 with loved ones and friends they'd made on their first visit to the lake in 2018 in attendance.
No one was surprised that they had bought the lakeside house.
"We both have always wanted an unconventional life and made choices to live an unconventional life. So it didn't surprise anyone in our family," she said. "When they came to the wedding, everyone was like, 'This place is magic.'"
Around the same time, the couple began thinking their fantasy of living in Italy could become reality.
The couple gradually started thinking they could move to Italy full-time.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
Before their wedding in 2022, Knighten and Cordier had the idea of starting an online subscription-based exam preparation business for the UAE's equivalent of the SATs.
The growth of their business eventually gave them the confidence to quit their teaching jobs in the UAE and move to Italy full-time during the summer of 2023.
Although their test-prep business, which they finally launched in the fall of 2023, has yet to turn a profit, Knighten said the teaching jobs they ended up finding in Italy paid better than they'd anticipated.
"We're really happy," she said.
The renovation kicked off in full swing in March — and it's still ongoing.
The house needed a whole new roof and floors.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
The house required a lot of TLC, which isn't cheap. Knighten said she and her husband estimate the project will cost roughly $100,000.
But the budget is expensive because they're making significant changes, Knighten added. For example, they're adding ensuite bathrooms to both bedrooms and structural upgrades like a new roof and skylights.
While they're renovating their house, they're living in a rental apartment nearby.
They've hired professionals to help with major changes, but Cordier also lends a hand whenever he's available. Knighten said it's still taken longer than they expected to move in.
They'd hoped to be living in the house by June, but it's looking closer to December as most people in Italy don't work full-time in August, she added.
During renovations, Knighten and Cordier discovered their house is a lot older than they thought.
The medieval window meant the house was older than the couple expected.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
Knighten said a real-estate agent told them the house was probably built in the 18th century.
But during the renovation process, the couple found a stone window hidden behind plaster that their architect said indicated the property was potentially medieval.
The discovery was all the more exciting because Knighten and Cordier love old artifacts.
"We're both really into history, and particularly history you can touch and feel," she said.
They also kept a lot of furniture the previous owner left behind to add character and save money.
The couple is getting creative with their renovation choices in order to cut down costs.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
When the couple was sold the home, the real-estate agent offered to get rid of all of the previous owner's furniture for them, which didn't sit right with Knighten or Cordier.
"There were loads of really cool vintage pieces," she said. "We went through everything in the house, and we've kept a lot."
Doing so has helped them cut down on costs and get creative with the renovation process.
For example, the couple can't afford new kitchen cabinets, so they've decided to use old wooden dressers that were already in the house for kitchen storage instead.
Knighten and Cordier might have been happy in the US, but she has no doubts Italy was the right choice.
Knighten and Cordier were living in the UAE when they stumbled upon Lago Iseo during a summer vacation in 2018.
Courtesy of Kristina Knighten and Paul Cordier
Knighten has no regrets about choosing their slice of Italian paradise over a chance to move back to the US.
"The quality of life here is beyond. It's incredible," she said. Benefits they're enjoying include better grocery produce, how walkable everything is, and, of course, free healthcare, which the couple can enroll in because they are residents.
It's a game changer for Knighten, who recalled experiencing an ovarian cyst rupture when she was living in the US without health insurance. Despite having two jobs at the time, she hesitated to go to the hospital because of how much it would cost.
"Looking back at it, I'm like, how is America considered the developed world?" Knighten said.
"Five years ago, I didn't expect to be doing this, and 10 years ago, I did not expect to be in the UAE or Vietnam," she said. "I'd 100% live in Chicago again. But I just don't see that happening for me, especially in my profession."
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