Where to have a base to see the Mediterranean in Spring?

You are talking about a vast area. Look at spending March in Greece/Turkey, April in Spain/Portugal and May in Italy. Then you will need to consider if 'basing yourself' or 'moving on' is the best plan of attack for each area.

The start at one end and work your way to the other is the better idea. If you have just one base and "commute" to all your other destination the travel costs will be enormous.

thx Joe - that's really the fundamental question. sounds like a nomadic adventure may be in the works.

Create a budget first then a list of must see places....that will inform how many days in each place or even if you want to visit all these places..you may want to settle in somewhere longer...is that 2 months or 3?

Do you speak any of these languages or are you looking to learn any? This could impact where you stay as well.

Get some good guide books...RS and Lonely Planet are a good start.

Have you been to Europe? Have you been to any of the countries on your outline?

Not sure the value of a base when you plan to visit five countries several hundreds of miles apart.

When I think of a base for travel, I think of a city like Madrid, where I can take day trips to Segovia, Avila and Toledo. You may plan on several weeks in Europe, but just doing a good tour of Spain and Portugal can eat up 3-4 weeks.

If you are planning to take flights from this central hub to all these places, then return to that hub, you will probably waste a lot of time and money. Better to start at one end of the MED and end up at the other.

If you still want a base, Italy might work best. Trains are more inexpensive in Italy and you don't need to rent a car to see the key cities.

Iberia (Spain and Portugal) is quite large and cities are far apart. Your could start in Lisbon (see Porto as well), then fly to Madrid or Seville, then on to Barcelona.

Consider eliminating Turkey, based on State department advisory.

Another great way to see the MED is on a cruise. You get to see a lot of ports (many of the ports in Greece and the Adriatic only need a day to see well.

This is a huge area - let's do a hypothetical. Let's say you do a base in...Barcelona, to pick an option that has good flights elsewhere and is on the Mediterranean (as opposed to somewhere like Rome that is near, but not on, the sea). So you find a place to stay for 3 months there. But you want to go to all these other places...so you'd what? Fly from Barcelona to Athens (3 hour flight) stay in Athens for a few days, paying for a hotel there while also paying for your base in Barcelona, then go from Athens to a Greek island for another few days (you can't see Mediterranean Greece without going into the islands, in my opinion), then fly back to Barcelona? Then do this again for all the other countries? Multiple times, because to take Italy as an example you would want to see multiple places that each require several nights. That would get ridiculously expensive and waste a lot of time.

With 3 months I would start at one end and allocate +/- 3 weeks per country, moving within that country as needed. You will need to be more specific on what you want to see in each country. Italy - great. Is that Rome? Florence? Tuscan hill towns? Venice? Sicily? All of those would require multiple days each.

Italy - great. Is that Rome? Florence? Tuscan hill towns? Venice?
Sicily? All of those would require multiple days each.

That's the point. The idea of a "base" will not even work within ONE of these countries. You can't realistically station yourself in Rome and take day trips to Sicily or Venice from there.

The concept of staying on one quaint old town for three months is a completely different one from that of getting to see five countries in the Mediterranean. If you are charmed by the idea of staying in such a place for a longer time, I'd suggest considering an internship or an exchange program, depending on what you do.

thx - great input. the idea of a base was to save the trouble of lugging things around. I realize there's a trade off here - basically paying for the ability to store stuff.

I'm a sr citizen. I speak Canadian English, some Spanish and French, Chinese and Japanese (I know, those are not that useful outside of Asia).

I have no itinerary and no set destinations at this time - other than I know I want to go Mar-May.

I also dont have a budget but that's obviously a good idea.

the idea of a base was to save the trouble of lugging things around. I
realize there's a trade off here - basically paying for the ability to
store stuff.

Try to answer this question for yourself: What is it that I would store at a base, not wanting to lug it around, that I might not just leave at home in the first place?

I can't think of much. Everything you need on your trip you will have to lug around. And for anything you don't need there's no reason to store it either.

I speak Canadian English, some Spanish and French

That's great. Spanish should come in handy not only in Spain but also (for comprehension purposes at least) in Portugal and in Italy. In most parts of Greece you can get along pretty well with English. Aside from that, a "Good morning" and a "Thank you" in the local language plus a smile will get you a long way.

What about your French? You don't mention France. Or is that the "places in between"? :-)

Chinese and Japanese (I know, those are not that useful outside of
Asia).

You never know. I used to live in a place where we got busloads of Japanese tourists, and nowadays, I understand the Chinese are traveling a lot. So, in touristy places, you may actually get to practice your Asian languages. :-)

I have no itinerary and no set destinations at this time - other than
I know I want to go Mar-May.

In one of the previous posts someone gave you a recommendation on where to go when, based not on a geographical order but rather (if I got that right) on the weather conditions of that season, which seems to be an excellent idea, even though it means some jumping around.