Wow, this is why I ask for your help. All of your varied experiences and suggestions all help to shape our itinerary. Obviously, we also need to include our preferences and past experiences, but the combination is awesome.

debinthepeg, I think your post sums up what I outlined above. I don't think it is possible to experience as much of Spain as we want to without having several 2-3 night stops. As long as we temper these with a few 5, 6 and 7 night stays at the beginning and end of the trip we should be fine.

danon, I know we have a lot of moving around, but this is why we like to have a number of longer (5-7) night stays during our trip. And our overall trip is longer than a lot of posters, because we are travelling from Australia. You simply cannot fly that far (in coach, anyway) and only stay for 3 weeks.

Thanks for the helpful suggestions and please keep them coming.

Steve,
We were in Australia ( well, only Sydney and Melbourne) seven years ago.
We loved what we saw , would gladly go again, but it is a long way from eastern Canada ...

I understand you are trying to cover as much as possible. If you have to move around to see what you wish , do it.
Spain is a big and diverse country...I have visited eight times. Already contemplating
another trip to Madrid and......??

BTW, liked Bologna and Lisbon very much...( spent 4 nights in Lisbon, six in Bologna)

Hi danon, you certainly get around. That's a lot of travelling - I'm envious.

Yes, we are looking forward to seeing Bologna - it's our first time there, but not Italy. We were in Italy for a month in 2012 and it remains our favourite country thus far. We are revisiting Cinque Terre, Florence and Rome as well as a revisit to Brienz in the Interlaken area of Switzerland - a very worthwhile visit if you haven't been.

I'm on the other side of the country from Melbourne and Sydney but we try to get over to Sydney most years. We love the Circular Quay / Rocks area.

virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Italy/Emilia_Romagna/Bologna-155512/Things_To_Do-Bologna-San_Luca-BR-1.html
The best memory from Bologna.
We also like Italy( going to Venice in May), but Spain has become addictive.