Mauro Morandi, Italy’s Robinson Crusoe, dies at 85

Mauro Morandi, whose 32-year stay on an uninhabited Mediterranean island earned him the nickname Italy’s Robinson Crusoe, died on January 3 in Modena, Italy. He is 85 years old.

Antonio Rinaldis, who wrote an article, said the cause was a brain hemorrhage. 2023 book with Mr. Morandi about his life on the island.

Unlike the hero Daniel Defoe who was shipwrecked and fervently hoped to be rescued, Mr. Morandi chose a lonely life.

He said he fell in love at first sight with Budelli, a wild, undeveloped island off the northern tip of Sardinia. He said in an interview that he came here in 1989 by chance. He left – against his will – in 2021, write on social networks that he was tired of “fighting against those who wanted to drive me away.”

Mr. Morandi’s extraordinary choice to live in solitude has spawned at least two books, at least one songshort documentaries and countless interviews. As the world turned inward during the coronavirus pandemic, reporters sought Mr. Morandi’s opinion understanding of isolation.

“I read a lot and think,” he told CNN in 2020. “I think a lot of people are afraid to read because if they do, they’ll start meditating and thinking about things, and that can be dangerous . If you start looking at things from a different and critical perspective, you will probably see what a miserable life you are living.”

Budelli, one of the main islands that make up the Maddalena Archipelago, is a paradise that covers less than two-thirds of a square mile. It is known for its pink sand beach surrounded by turquoise waters. The island has no running water, no electricity grid and can only be reached by boat.

Mr. Morandi lived in an abandoned tent from World War II, tarps were being posted in an empty lot out front. He created sculptures from tree branches, cooked on a propane stove and read voraciously, buying books and supplies on trips to La Maddalena, the largest town on the islands. Visitors also brought him food and water. He used car batteries and solar power to charge his cell phone and tablet.

It is, he says, “a simple life made up of joys big and small.”

“The most important thing,” he added, “is that I have a peaceful relationship with time.”

For many years he was the island’s designated guardian, employed by the Swiss-Italian real estate company that owned the island.

His main task is to protect the island’s habitat from unruly tourists, who are only allowed on certain roads, part of the Italian environment ministry’s efforts to protect the sands rare rose. He told everyone about the wonders of the island, and how pieces of coral and shells turned the sand pink. He picks up trash on the beach, clears paths on the island and performs light maintenance.

Mr. Morandi initially chose to live in seclusion, Mr said in an interview at Genoa’s maritime museum, but he ultimately welcomed the chosen ones as part of his mission to help them “understand why we need to love nature.”

He says he doesn’t miss human contact. “He did not like what humanity had become in the 21st century — consumerism and individualism — especially with regard to nature,” Mr. Rinaldis said. That is why Mr. Morandi is interested in protecting Budelli.

When he finally had an Internet connection, he used social media to showcase the island’s wild beauty.

In 2016, after a long legal battle over the ownership of the island, the island was transferred to the state and became part of the island. Maddalena Islands National Park. Mr. Morandi was asked to leave.

The park’s president, Giuseppe Bonanno, acknowledged Mr. Morandi’s unique position. “Morandi represents a man fascinated by the elements, who decides to devote his life to contemplation and guardianship,” he told reporters. But there were other issues, including whether Mr. Morandi could survive alone in a medical emergency, not to mention the fact that his tent did not meet the code.

He fought back. He campaigned against his deportation on social media. He gave interviews to the media. Online petition has attracted nearly 75,000 signatures.

“We do not want Mauro to leave the island because first of all we think that if Budelli remains a wonder of nature it is also thanks to him,” the petition reads. “And secondly, because we believe that the park has everything to gain from his presence: Mauro has lived in Budelli for a quarter of a century, he knows every plant and every rock , every tree and every animal, he recognized the colors and fragrances according to the changes of the wind and the seasons.”

But after five years of fighting with the government, Mr. Morandi gave in. He is 82 years old and his health is no longer good. “Part of his resignation is tied to his fragility, but he is also disappointed that he was forced to leave by the authorities,” Mr. Rinaldis said.

Mr. Morandi left the island permanently in March 2021 and moved into a small apartment in La Maddalena. “I will leave with the hope that in the future, Budelli will be kept safe, just like I have been for the past 32 years,” he said. speak.

Mauro Morandi was born on February 12, 1939 in Modena. His father, Mario Morandi, was a gymnast who won a national championship in artistic gymnastics in 1936 and later worked as a school custodian. Mauro’s mother, Enia Camellini, worked for a tobacco company.

Mr. Morandi studied to become a physical education teacher and taught at a junior high school in Modena until the 1970s, when he was able to retire early. He had three daughters in a marriage that ended in divorce.

They survive him, as well as a brother, Renzo, and six grandchildren.

in one Interviewed in 2016 to the Turin daily La Stampa, Mr. Morandi said that after reading Richard Bach’s 1970 bestseller, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” he “went flying,” exploring the sea. In 1989, he said, he decided that he was “fed up with society and looking for another life.” He bought a catamaran with some friends with the idea of ​​sailing to Polynesia.

To raise money, they searched for places to rent cruises and came across Budelli. There, they meet caretaker Budelli, who has just decided to leave. He offered them the job and Mr. Morandi took it. At first he was paid, but he stayed even when he no longer received a salary; he then lived on his teacher’s pension. On rare occasions, he returned to Modena for short vacations to visit his family.

At one point, he read a study by the University of Sassari that showed that the flora and fauna in Budelli were similar to the flora and fauna of the Polynesian islands he had hoped to visit. “It was almost like Budelli wanted me, to make sure that I got here, the only beach in the whole Mediterranean, which had a structure almost identical to the islands where I wanted to go,” he said in a 2016 interview with photographer Claudio Muzzetto.

After Mr. Morandi’s death, Margherita Guerra, one of his thousands of followers on social media, wrote: “Safe trip. In the end no one will be able to take you away from your beloved island.”