Who does not dream of visiting Tuscany? So many conjurings of Tuscany.

The soft yellow or cream stone streets and villages such as San Gimignano or Monteriggioni. The baskets and pots of red and blue flowers with green from leaves, ivy, miniature shrubs. Sitting at a table on a small plaza, drinking morning coffee or a glass of Chianti. Looking out across the countryside in the Val de Elsa, and seeing Italian cypresses lining narrow roads. Strolling through the great cathedrals of Lucca and Siena. In the distance, those same cypresses surrounding a villa set among rolling farmland and hills. And, of course, the marble statues and large vivid paintings of Florence, no finer Renaissance masterpieces anywhere.

We dream of Tuscany! As a spell-bound college student in Athens, I knew that besides the world of ancient Greece that someday I would travel to ancient Rome and Renaissance Italy. I knew that I would travel through Tuscany. I just had too!

I am fortunate. My dreams, my desires, became real. Several times I have wandered through the landscape and cityscape of Rome and Italy. There is always less than our dreams; there is also always more than our dreams.

The reality often clashes with our fantasies. If you are like me, then my dreams accentuate the beautiful, the magnificent. The wonderful plazas. The great food. The unparallel sculptures. The unequaled and always accessible rural views. If you are like me, then my dreams are always selective, restrictive. I don’t think of dirty plates and dishes remaining on the plaza tables. I overlook the morning trash and litter. I ignore the sculpture of television attenaes and the exhaust polluting buses. I overlook the blocks of boring concrete sidewalks and buildings, or the waste treatment plants and landfills. Selective. Restrictive.

I desire a perfect dreamworld. A perfect fantasy of a distant and exotic land that is not marred in any way. I’m not alone. Others dreams probably share the same quality. A different place to live will be perfect. A different set of friends will make my life completely ideal.

There is a beauty to Tuscany. Sitting on that plaza watching children play, or feeling a cool breeze, eating one of dozens of regional pasta dishes. Walking around a corner and seeing a sculpture or modern street art. Seeing the multi-color marble on the Siena Cathedral. Beautiful.

For me, wisdom is allowing the beautiful and the ugly to appear. For me, wisdom is allowing both to appear in their own way and on their own terms.

I’ll continue to dream of Tuscany! Who doesn’t! Yet, Tuscany, in its concrete and particular reality, is even more enchanting.