Our daughter is enrolled near Madrid for a semester of college. On a whim, we would like to try to visit during her spring break. It sounds like Barcelona, Seville and Granada are top spots in addition to Madrid. Are there other cities to consider? Is it feasible to see some of Spain and also get to Florence or Rome in a 10-12 day time span or should we spend our time touring all of Spain?

In 10 days you can stop in 3 cities in Spain - one of them being Madrid if that's where you land. Italy is not possible unless you bag Spain.

And staying in more than 3 cities (I would do 2) will mean you have alovely tour of train stations, rather than cities.

You will stay during Semana Santa/Holy week/Easter, the most important celebration of the year around most of Spain. Especially in Andalucía (Sevilla, Málaga, Granada etc) Semana Santa is huge and could be an experience to never forget. Sevilla has got one of the most famous Holy Week celebrations in the world, people on the streets and in bars and restaurants almost 24/7 for a whole week, spectacular processions both day and night etc. No way better to experience the typical Spanish mix of devotion and fiesta.
http://gospain.about.com/od/semanasa...mana_santa.htm

If you plan to visit Sevilla, you should move very fast to get acommodation. Also fabulous celebrations in Málaga, but not as crowded as Sevilla.

The high speed AVE train connects Madrid with both Barcelona, Sevilla and Málaga (+ a number of other cities). Super fast from city center to city center, highly recommended. Granada can be reached by bus/train from Sevilla (some 3 h) and Málaga (1,5h).

I would have started with some days in Madrid with possible daytrips, and then go South for the full package.

I think you first must decide what exactly you want to see--as others said, you must pare down considerably.
What does your daughter want to do? Is her town of sufficient interest that you would all want to stay there a few days and do day trips to Madrid? Or does she want to hightail it out of Spain for her spring break and see Italy? (and on parents' dime to boot!)
Also 10 or 12 days makes a huge difference.
Other thoughts to consider: are you city folks or would you prefer seeing some small towns? If the former, then Madrid plus Barcelona is a no brainer.
It would be more of a fast-paced trip, but the "triumvirate" of Andalusian cities (Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba) is a popular first trip to Spain. No way I would go near any of them around easter though.
So, I suggest chatting with each other and your daughter before buying plane tickets--but if that makes the difference, you may want to price check a few. In and out of Madrid is usually cheapest, but you can often get an open jaw flight for a similar cost.

I agree with yorkshire that you need to determine first how many days you will have on land in Europe(10 or 12) and then where do you want to go (Spain OR Italy).

If you decide on Spain with 10-12 days I would at most focus on 2 areas. You'd have to pare back on the desire to visit Barcelona, Madrid, Sevilla and Granada as it will be way to rushed to do all of this in 10-12 days.

Then there's the Semana Santa factor. I personally love visiting Andalucia during this time. It's a passionate, incredible way to get a glimpse into the culture. But it is quite crowded and accomodation will be at a premium price (particularly in Sevilla). If you do decide to visit Sevilla and want to avoid the Semana Santa period you'd need to arrange this part at the end of your trip.

Definately get the itinerary squared away before purchasing tickets. So many people buy there tickets and then end up having to back track when they could have purchased open jaw flights.

Feasible = possible? Of course. Only thing that is not feasible is when the travel time duration exceeds the wall clock time.

However, feasibility has nothing to do with whether you can do it nor you would enjoy it. Some use formula based approach -- so many days here so many days there. Others might you objectives based approach to allocate days at destinations based on what the particular trip is expected to accomplish.

I think one thing you must grasp is the magnitude of the travel time. If you are using trains in Spain, use http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query2.exe/en to get travel time estimates. The Spanish national railroad is Renfe, but the DB trip planner give the same info and has easier to use web site.

Suppose you train Madrid-Seville-Granada, then fly Vueling www.vueling.com to Barcelona, then fly Vueling again to Forence, train to Rome. Now add all the travel time on travel days and you can see it for yourself how much time is left at each destination.

I think if you go to Andalucia during Easter you are mainly going to see the festivals. That is to say, if you want to see Sevilla, you won't see it. You'll see this festival. It will be extremely difficult -- if not impossible -- to tour the historic town. Personally, I would hate such a spectacle, but obviously others flock to witness it.

THere is no law that says if you go to Spain you have to see the cities most tourists see, or spend all of your time in one country. Barcelona and Madrid are incredibly different places and both get extremely diverse reactions from travelers. Many people dislike one or the other or both.

Why don't you read up on these places and see what their main attractions are and decide if you want to visit them. If you decide you only want to visit one Spanish destination (for me, it would be the Alhambra), certainly you have time to fly to Italy.

Agreed - too short a time span to see 4 cities in Spain and a bit of Italy. regrouping - fly from the US to Rome, would like to see Florence (or is Venice more recommended?), need to end up in Madrid to meet host parents for our daughter and see some sights there. Any suggestions for 10 days?