Rome
CNN
—
A man who made an art of living off the grid on a deserted Mediterranean island for more than 30 years has died at the age of 85, just three years after he returned to civilization.
Mauro Morandi was nicknamed Robinson Crusoe by the media after being identified as the sole resident of Budelli island, an old World War II shelter off the Italian island of Sardinia. He prided himself on his solitary life.
Morandi stayed on the island as its primary caretaker shortly after he shipwrecked his catamaran while attempting to sail to Polynesia in 1989 on a mission, he said, to escape consumerism and society as a whole.
As luck would have it, Budelli’s previous hermit caretaker was just about to retire, so Morandi took the job and lived alone in a house made of coral, granite and shells on the picturesque isle for three decades. He was evicted by Italian authorities in 2021 when the Italian state converted the island to a nature park.
During his 32 years on the island, he kept the beaches clean and educated day-trippers about the island’s ecosystem. Supplies were brought in as part of his job as a caretaker, and he configured a makeshift solar power system and heated his home with a simple fireplace.
After his eviction, the state moved him to La Maddalena, an archipelago off Sardinia designated as a national park, where he lived in a one-bedroom apartment.
“It’s never really over,” Morandi told CNN in 2021 after leaving his island paradise. “I’m the living proof that a second, new life is possible. You can always start all over again, even if you’re over 80, because there are other things you can experience, a totally different world.”
Pleased with a taste of modernity, he remarked that post-hermit life suited him.
“I’m happy and I have rediscovered the pleasure of living the good life and enjoying everyday comforts,” he told CNN.
Morandi entered a nursing home in the Sardinian city of Sassari after a fall last summer, according to Italian media reports. He later moved to the northern Italian city of Modena, where he was born and had worked as a physical education teacher until 1989.
He is reported to have died over the weekend in Modena after his health deteriorated. In a loving Facebook tribute, his friends promised to scatter his ashes at sea.
