Star of Rome's 'sexy priest' calendar admits: 'I was never a priest'

ROME, Italy - His face smiles out from every kiosk in Rome on the cover of the ubiquitous "sexy priest" calendar sold to tourists but Giovanni Galizia was never a man of the cloth.

In an interview with Repubblica daily Monday, the now 39-year-old flight attendant instructor said he donned the priestly garb as a lark with a photographer when he was 17 years old.

"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", the annual calendar featuring a photograph of a supposed priest for each month.

Today, he said, "time has passed, and it shows".

"What I can assure you is that I was never a priest," he said, adding that other presumed priests could also be fake.

Countless tourists buy the calendar -- which costs upwards of 10 euros ($11.65) -- as a memento of their visit to the seat of the Catholic Church, where not every clergyman is as easy on the eyes as Galizia.

In 2004, he met a photographer who wanted to reveal various Italian cities through photographs: "Venice with gondoliers, and Rome with priests."

"At one point he asked me if I wanted to participate. It was a game, he had everything ready," including the priest outfit, Galizia said.

The photograph was taken in Palermo and he "never asked for a euro," for it, he noted.

Galizia said that while his face is famous in Rome, elsewhere he can go incognito.

Friends who visit the capital "always send me a photo of the calendar". — Agence France-Presse