Mauro Morandi, the Italian man famously known as “Robinson Crusoe” for his solitary life on a secluded Mediterranean island, has died at the age of 85. Morandi spent over 30 years living off the grid on the island, mastering the art of self-sufficiency, before returning to civilisation just three years ago, according to CNN.
He got the nickname ‘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.
Robinson Crusoe is an English adventure novel about its title character, Robinson Kreutznaer, who is shipwrecked and spends 28 years on a deserted tropical island near the coasts of Venezuela and Trinidad. During his time on the island, he encounters cannibals, captives, and mutineers before eventually being rescued.
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, as per CNN.
According to The Guardian, in 2021, when he was evicted from his home on Budelli after a lengthy tussle with La Maddalena national park authorities, who had planned to transform the island into a hub for environmental education.
Morandi moved into a one-bedroom apartment on La Maddalena, the largest of the archipelago of seven islands off the north coast of Sardinia.He spent some time in a care home in Sassari last summer after a fall and is reported to have died at the weekend in Modena, northern Italy, where he was originally from, after his health deteriorated.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2021, Morandi said he was struggling to adapt to life after Budelli. “I became so used to the silence. Now it’s continuous noise,” he said.
