In 1969, and again in 1970, he was a member of Thor Heyerdahl's expedition which crossed the Atlantic Ocean in Ra I and Ra II, vessels made of papyrus. Following the Ra expeditions, Mauri took part in many others including following the route of Marco Polo in the Asian steppes and exploring Patagonia and the Amazon. He also made several documentary films of his travels, some of them produced for the Italian state broadcaster RAI. Again with Heyerdahl he took part in the Tigris expedition of 1977. He was a member of the “Gruppo Ragni Grignetta di Lecco” climbers group. After an accident where he suffered a broken leg, Mauri became the first Italian to undergo Gavril Ilizarov's bone-lengthening operation, distraction osteogenesis.[1] He died at Lecco in 1982.