CALABRIA - Eternal gratitude is due to the Riace Bronzes, the two stupendous Greek statues dredged from the sea and exhibited, from the early 1980s, in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria. Thanks to the irresistible attraction exercised by the two masterpieces (one of which is attributed to Fidia, the master Greek sculptor of the fifth century B. C.), hundreds of thousands of visitors arrived in Calabria. And in this way many of them finally discovered, as a joyous and marvellous surprise, a beautiful country, an unspoilt sea, a lush and sometimes wild countryside, with numerous architectural and artistic masterpieces of unexpected quality. Extraordinary, fascinating Calabria, a land of a thousand surprises. Of exquisite beauty, for example, is the Codex Purpureus, a rare sixth-century Greek gospel conserved in the Museo Diocesano in Rossano, with silver lettering and illustrated with splendid elegant figures and religious scenes. A breathtaking surprise, for those who see it for the first time, is the picturesque and spectacular coast of Tropea, on the Tyrrhenian sea (Calabria is also boarded by the Ionian). But it bears repeating that in Calabria, the surprises never end.