Schengen Visa Advice - Indian Passport, travelling to Spain, France, Italy

[Apjace]

Hey folks,

Looking for advice on the friendliest place to apply for a 17 day Schengen tourist visa on Indian passports. We land in Madrid (Lufthansa transit via Munich) and exit from Rome (again via Munich) in April.

Not booked intra-city travel or stay yet, so we're flexible there.

I understand Spanish embassy can be difficult, but France is much easier/ friendlier. Though intention was to primarily do Spain & Italy with a minor halt in Nice, I could show a longer stay in France for the visa if that's recommended.

For reference, we do have an earlier Schengen visa from Switzerland/Austria in 2013.

Glad for advice from the geo globetrotters. (Indian passport holder advice would be doubly appreciated, as we need to jump through narrower hoops to see the world)

TIA.

[Apjace]

Source of info regarding difficulties : Anecdotal from family, and this thread: https://en.tripadvisor.com.hk/ShowTopic-g187427-i42-k5612328-o50-Avoid_Spain_as_first_country_of_entry_for_Schengen _visa-Spain.html

Additionally, VFS Global declares they are not handling Spanish Schengen visas since 16th Dec, 2016.

[shri]

If it matters - last trip to Europe was through Germany. Simple ... but needed to show some insurance documents which were a pain in the arse, because of whatever reason I cannot remember.

Figure out which country is the easiest to get a visa, arrive there, stay a day and enjoy and then go to Spain where they obviously don't want to give Indians a visa.

[ssss]

We have applied twice in the past. Denmark and Switzerland consulates. Denmark - made an issue with travel insurance dates. Switzerland was very smooth. Whichever consulate you apply, they will definitely ask for full itinerary including hotel bookings.

This is from Netherlands consulate website.

"Visiting more than 1 Schengen State
If you intend to visit more than 1 Schengen state, you should submit your application to the embassy or consulate of the Schengen state that will be your main destination.

If you intend to spend an equal length of time in several Schengen states, you should submit your application to the embassy or consulate of the Schengen state that you will arrive in first."

[Apjace]

Can't find a related thread so just putting it here.

Learnt the hard way that Hang Seng takes 1 week to give you bank statement print outs if you want more than the last 2 months. If you need last 3 months, you will need a week. since they have to requisition it from some internal department.

My bad thinking it would be a 10 minute affair to get last 3 month bank statements from my home branch. (And 50$/monthly statement copy). And like HSBC, they say they will not stamp/chop your ebanking copy if you print and bring it yourself.

[Sith]

My Indian colleague travelled a few times to Europe for holidays to several countries and he had to apply for a visa at the embassy/consulate of the country he would spend the most time no matter in which country he would land. So the same as what the Dutch website said.
E.g. Once he would land in Amsterdam so went to the Dutch consulate and they told him he had to go to the Italian consulate as he would spend most of his holidays there.