Thanks for all the replies, very helpful indeed.

We would be flying from London and so Verona and Florence are easily accessible.

I mentioned this in my original post, but although Feltrinelli is warmly talked about by most people here, there are no recent reports on this forum. Have any of the regulars here been within the last 6 months? I would be interested to know if it still maintains the high standards that everyone has talked about previously.

Also, and this is slightly OT, but I don't 100% agree with the comments about choosing a destination rather than a hotel. Of course, all these hotels are in destinations that I would be happy to visit. However, notwithstanding that, I do think that there are some hotels that are a destination in themselves or are so "of a place" that they become a "must-visit". This is mostly, but not exclusively, true of resort hotels. For example, I have been to Paris many times and whilst I love it, I don't absolutely need to go back over and above somewhere that I haven't been before - however, to be able to stay at the George V would be a magical experience and in itself make the trip worthwhile.