Fig.: not being realistic; to live in an imaginary world, idealist and impractical, with little resemblance to reality

When referees make contentious decisions players are going to be upset, and anyone who thinks otherwise is living in cloud-cuckoo-land

È normale che i giocatori siano contrariati quando gli arbitri prendono decisioni controverse e opinabili, e chi è convinto del contrario vive nel mondo delle favole

When I decided to leave the big city and move out to the country to raise goats and chickens, everybody called me a dreamer and told me that I was living in a Cloud-cuckoo-land. They might be right, but I'm happy as I am!

Quando ho deciso di lasciare la grande città per trasferirmi in campagna ad allevare capre e galline, tutti mi hanno dato del sognatore e mi hanno detto che vivevo nel mondo delle favole. Forse hanno ragione loro, ma io sono felice così!

The expression, which came into use in the 1820s, is the translation of a Greek phrase taken from the comedy "The Birds" by Aristophanes. In this play, the birds built an imaginary city in the air, a kind of cloud-cuckoo-land, to separate the gods from humankind. During the 19th century it began to be used to indicate a place of dreams and unrealistic expectations, and it also acquired the connotation of "crazy", as "cuckoo" has been a slang word for "crazy" since the early 1900s