In Part Two, Don Quixote and Sancho are traveling to El Toboso when seeking Dulcinea.
El Toboso is presented as the home of Dulcinea del Toboso, the idealized lady whom Don Quixote treats as the center of his chivalric mission. In reality, Dulcinea is based on Aldonza Lorenzo, a neighboring peasant woman whom Don Quixote transforms through imagination into a noble princess. The journey therefore mixes a real place with an invented identity.
Their visit becomes comic because Sancho knows that Dulcinea is not the magnificent courtly figure his master imagines. Rather than reveal the truth, he improvises an explanation when Don Quixote asks him to identify her. Don Quixote then interprets an ordinary encounter through the logic of enchantment.
El Toboso is a real municipality in Toledo province, in Castilla–La Mancha. Its literary fame comes primarily from Cervantes, and the town now includes attractions such as the Cervantine Museum and the Museum of Dulcinea.