Learn the history, read the stories...it's certainly wonderful to fall in love with a place and to find your connections to the past.
But be sure to learn the whole story and the truth and consider all of the bad along with the good. It does you no good to dwell in a romantic delusion. No matter where I go and no matter how nice I find the place there's always somebody who lives there who thinks that it sucks and can't wait to go somewhere else.
Still reading "How the Scots Invented the Modern World" and it has been an education to say the least. I'll bring up the work of Henry Louis Gates, the African-American historian: he's pointed out that much of what the African-American community thinks about their ancestors' lives in Africa is a romantic delusion...that the "story" is more appealing than the "truth" so the "story" is what gets more play. I saw a wonderful documentary series on the history of Ireland a couple of years ago that took the popular image of Irish History on and pointed out a few facts that made it look somewhat less "majestic".
Point for me is that many cultures and groups have endured great persecution and injustice and have risen above ignorance and misery because of the indomitable nature of the human spirit...legends are coined and actual events are sometimes "enhanced" as a way of expressing this triumph in a digestible way. If King Arthur was actually the King of All the Britons it was because he was the baddest SOB in Britain at the time not because he was noble or brave or annointed by some unseen hand. (See: Monty Python and the Holy Grail...he must be a king because he doesn't have $#!+ all over him).
Bagpipes give a lot of people the chills down their spine (and if I never hear Amazing Grace on bagpipes again I'll be eternally grateful...sorry) and I don't think that you have to be of Scottish extraction to feel some resonance there.
Not to be a cynic but you do have to look at the whole picture. Remember that Hitler dragged the German People along with constant references to the romantic myths about their collective past...enjoy the poetry of the story but be always aware of the reality.

Best

AA