Mauro Morandi chose to take a sabbatical from employment and start sailing in 1989. He bought a cheap catamaran boat and traveled to Polynesia. The boat’s engine eventually failed, and the short holiday turned into a new way of life: Mauro spent the next 30 years on a desert island. Budelli Island is part of a big archipelago, and a spot that is absolutely abandoned for thousands of kilometers around cannot be called such.

But, as if by chance, Mauro’s catamaran landed just here, at a place where there was no one. The first six months were challenging, but after six months, the first ship arrived on the island, allowing Mauro to repair the catamaran. Another would have instantly set course and returned, but the Italian had other ideas.

He did not return to the mainland indefinitely but instead took a short flight to the archipelago’s core island and carried himself with everything he needed. I used to think I couldn’t bear being alone. “And then I started to enjoy it,” Mauro explained. Mauro Morandi is a self-proclaimed hermit. He has the ability to return to society at any time; he simply doesn’t want to. Mauro now permits people to visit the island, and he has satellite internet and a phone. Perhaps the individual will change his mind and relocate to the mainland sooner or later.