Rome Calendar's 23-Year Cover Model Is No Priest, Fueling 30-Year Souvenir Myth

3 articles · Updated · Wanted in Rome · May 18

Giovanni Galizia, 39, said he has never been a priest despite appearing on the cover of Rome’s Calendario Romano since 2004; he is a flight attendant from Palermo.
Piero Pazzi’s Vatican-area souvenir calendar has sold for more than 30 years at €6 to €25, with tourists often assuming its cassock-clad models are real clergy.
Pazzi has acknowledged most subjects were not priests at all, saying he used models, men approached on the street and people photographed at Spanish religious processions.
Galizia said false online stories have long circulated around his image, and he once threatened legal action after a website paired his photo with allegations about another priest’s drug use and blasphemy.
The disclosure punctures one of Rome’s most durable tourist curiosities, whose appeal has rested on mixing Vatican imagery with idealized clerical portraits.

Is Rome's famous 'priest' calendar a 30-year deception, or is its success fueled by tourists who are in on the joke?

Why was the star of Rome's best-selling calendar never paid, despite its role in a billion-dollar tourism market?