Seventy-eight-year-old Mauro Morandi has lived alone on Budelli Island for almost three decades. Twenty-eight years ago, Morandi’s catamaran which had a crippled engine, was carried to the shores of the island. He learned the caretaker there was retiring, and Morandi sold the catamaran and took his place. He’s lived there alone ever since. Maddalena Archipelago National Park is made up of seven islands but Budelli is considered the most beautiful among them for its Pink Beach (Spiaggia Rosa). In the early 1990s, the beach was closed off to protect its fragile ecosystem, and visitors can only access certain areas. Morandi says he will never leave. He hopes to die on the island and have his ashes scattered into the wind, because he believes all life is eventually reunited with Earth. Every day, Morandi collects trash that washes up on the beach. He doesn’t like people, but he still educates summertime visitors about the ecosystem and how to protect it.
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