Lisbon or Madrid in September?

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A few days away with a friend in September, somewhere we can fly to from Dublin and ideally somewhere we haven't been before. We both like walking, nice food, museums and sometimes a thermal pool day. We are usually budget travellers.

Our options look like Lisbon, Madrid, Tallinn, Bucharest, Rome. Those have good flight times and neither of us have been. The warmer ones appeal!

Any suggestions on which to pick and why?

What about Valletta? So much to do and see, so easy to get around

I'm doing 3 days in Lisbon at the end of August and did 3 in Madrid in 2019. I love Madrid so much. Did Rome last summer and that was fab too.
Imo you can't go wrong with any of these. I found Rome cheaper than Madrid if that's any help.

Valetta flights don't really work for us.

I've heard about Rome being expensive....but I assume there's a variety of restaurants and you just have to walk a wee bit away from the main attractions?!

Madrid if you want city, shops (expensive) roof top bars.
Toledo is an hour away if you want historic city , cozy restaurants , narrow moorish streets.

We've just come back from Madrid - it was fabulous but roasting hot - hopefully better in September. We went to Lisbon last October. We spent a lot of time over cocktails discussing which one we preferred. Madrid is huge but the historical centre is quite compact. Brilliant museums of course. The food was great - lots of fab tapas bars at all prices. We went to the famous churros place for breakfast. You need to queue but it moves quickly. Ditto La Campana for the calamari sandwiches. It is BUSY though and it would take more than a weekend to adjust to the Madrid timescale - meals are hours later than we are used to - some places didn't open til after 9pm. Lisbon is a lot prettier with a lot more pedestrian areas. (and hills). The views from the top though are stunning. The 28 tram is great fun. Food didn't stand out so much to me - but it was cheaper definitely. We liked the castle, the Time Out Market and the tuk tuk tour. We had nice sunny weather without it being oppressively hot. We had nice apartments in both places - but the Lisbon one definitely won over for view and location. www.agoda.com/lux-graca-vista-panoramica-sobre-a-cidade/hotel/lisbon-pt.html?cid=1844104 We used booking.com but the link is more compact here. I would go back to both. We definitely wished we booked longer in Madrid as a weekend barely scratched the surface. With Lisbon we would like to do trips to Sintra and Cascais next time but spend the evenings in the city.

I'd go to either in September, both are lovely in their own ways.

Rome really isn't at all expensive unless you sit down in the top tourist places, it's really east to find good value restaurants there.

Rome also fabulous - we stayed out of the city centre near the Appian way but near the metro and a direct bus that went all the way to the Vatican via many of the sights. You really need to pre-book the main sights or queue for hours, but indeed you can find food at all prices. Our suburban apartment had plenty of local eateries and take away pizza places nearby that were really reasonable.