7 full days in Barcelona and Florence. One of them will get 3 days. Which one?

Have you been to either of these great cities before?

No. I have been to Rome (loved it) and Portugal (also loved it). Many years ago went to Girona on business and really liked it.

Montserrat is fabulous, but i'd skip it unless its really important to you. Both cities need about 5 days, so I think you should probably make a list of what is appealing to you in each city and go from there.

Personally, I would do 4 for Barcelona 3 for Florence. This was my thought even before I heard you had the extra 1/2 day coming from Lucca.

Thanks for all the replies.

Confuso,
When are you planning this trip?

You say you’ll have 7 full days, does that mean 8 nights, not counting travel days?

Are you flying to/from the U.S., or from where?

Do you plan to fly to Barcelona, and fly home from Florence, Rome or Milan?

Have you considered spending your 7 days in Spain, or Italy, instead of traveling from one country to the other?
You could stay in Barcelona and take a few day trips, or split your days in Barcelona and Madrid. Conversely, you could split your time in Italy between Florence and a variety of beautiful places in Tuscany or Umbria.

The main reason for suggesting to limit your trip to one country is to avoid wasting valuable time traveling between these two countries.

Happy planning!

7 full days. We will be flying from the US to Pisa, staying two nights, going to Florence then Barcelona and finally Malaga.

We did a similar trip to Portugal flying from Faro to Porto and then Porto to Lisbon, and it worked great. Note that FLR to BCN is just 1h45 flying (you can count 3h45 with airport stuff) which is about what a drive from Florence to Rome would take give or take.

Initially, we had a whole Italian-only trip planned but decided to extended it to Spain since it's so close and we were dying to see it. In the first version, we would rent a car and drive through Tuscany before dropping the car and staying in Siena and Florence. Funny enough, I watched a Rick Steves' video today where he said the happiest days he had in Italy where those where he would return the car.

That was my experience back in April when I returned a car after 9 days of driving through Umbria and Tuscany. . . . relief and joy. Oddly I've never had that feeling before, even after driving in Sicily and the Amalfi Coast, or in Spain, Portugal or France.

I would stay 4 full days in Barcelona and 3 in Florence. Especially if you are a fan of Gaudi and fresh seafood. The food in Barcelona is wonderful. Especially the octopus.

I suggest Taste of Barcelona for a food tour, if they are still in business.

If you are open for suggestions, unless you have something in particular in Barcelona, while it is a great city, Madrid has a LOT to offer, as does Sevilla.

I suggest not doing two cities so far apart geographically.
Also, you need more time than a week to see both of these cities.