Booked this hotel with points almost as soon as it became available. It's an unbelievably great deal if you book right now for summer 2016 -- a value of about 5.5 cents (USD) per point (for our dates, revenue rates are starting at 615 euros while award nights are 12000 points; I actually paid +1500 night more for an upgraded room though).

This brings me to a very interesting point -- 2015 award nights (at least, for summer) seem to be 16000 points while 2015 are 12000 points, so I'd recommend taking advantage of that while it lasts

We are hoping to spend a first week of July in Italy, so our current plan is to fly into Venice, get a car at the airport (need an automatic & Trieste doesn't offer them from what I can tell), drive to the hotel (need to figure out a place or two to stop along the way), spend about a week there exploring the area, drive back to Venice, turn in the rental car and spend two nights at the Gritti Palace (finally put SPG50 to use and got Venetian room for 665 euros -- not sure it can get any lower in the summer).

Haven't really started planning what to see near Portopiccolo but if anyone has any links they can share, it'd be greatly appreciated

P.S. And, of course, I look forward to hotel reviews!