Obituary | One man on his island

Mauro Morandi needed to abandon consumer society

The hermit-guardian of Italy’s loveliest beach died on January 3rd, aged 85

Mauro Morandi seated on the beach at Budelli
Photograph: BILD/Stefano Laura

To Polynesia! That was where Mauro Morandi wanted to go. By 1989 he had the means to get there, a 16-metre seven-cabin catamaran, “a Ferrari of the seas”. Flat, dull Modena would be left behind; in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin he would discover tropical forests, coral reefs, turquoise lagoons and dark, brooding women. He would break with the Western world, and find himself.

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This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Mauro Morandi”

From the February 1st 2025 edition

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