Rome's Fake Priest Calendar Star Finally Breaks His Silence

For years, Giovanni Galizia’s face has stared out from tourist kiosks across Rome, a handsome clergyman gracing the cover of the wildly popular“Calendario Romano”— the annual calendar that’s become as much a souvenir of the Eternal City as a bottle of Chianti or a miniature Colosseum. Problem is, he was never actually a priest.

Now 39, the flight attendant instructor finally came clean in an interview with Repubblica daily on Monday, revealing that his priestly portrait was nothing more than a lark with a photographer when he was just 17 years old. Back in 2004, he met a photographer keen on capturing the essence of Italian cities through imagery:“Venice with gondoliers, and Rome with priests.”When the photographer asked if Galizia wanted to participate, he said yes — it was a game, and the photographer had everything ready, including the priestly outfit. The shoot took place in Palermo, and Galizia never asked for a euro in compensation.

“I don’t see anything sexy in that photo…there’s nothing sensual about it,”Galizia told the newspaper of the shot gracing the“Calendario Romano,”which has sold for upwards of 10 euros ($11.65) to countless tourists who had no idea they were buying a picture of a fake friar. What makes the revelation even messier? Galizia hinted that other presumed priests in the calendar could also be frauds. The admission raises an awkward question for all those travelers who purchased the calendar as a memento of their visit to the seat of the Catholic Church: How many other models in that little book were never men of the cloth?

The irony is thick. Rome’s most famous“sexy priest”has become more famous for not being a priest at all. Galizia noted that while his face is instantly recognizable in Rome, elsewhere he can move through the world unnoticed — though friends who visit the capital always send him photos of the calendar, a constant reminder of his accidental fame. At this point, the joke’s on the tourists, the photographer, and the calendar company. Galizia’s teenage prank has aged into something far more interesting: a gentle con that nobody seemed to mind.