My name is Paola Valenzuela and I live in Brazil. Next May I will finally visit Spain and Italy, with my husband and my sister-in-law. It´s our first trip out of Brazil and we are very excited about it.

We plan to stay 14 days in Spain and visit Madrid, Toledo, Cordoba, Sevilla, Granada and Barcelona. We want to rent a car to drive all the way, but in the cities we might use the bus and the feet. I would apreciate if someone could give me any information about inexpensive hotels in these cities.

We plan to stay 11 days in Italy and visit Rome, Florence and Venice. Someone told me that I could stay in Padua (Padova I suppose) and visit Venice during the day, since they are only 30 km away and Venice is very expensive. What do you think?

In Florence we plan to stay on the La Scaletta. Any comments? Someone knows Siena? I heard it is worthwhile to visit.

Thanks for your help, Paola