Just thought I'd correct some items in this post to avoid misinformation:
I got two business award tickets on Altalia airline EWR to Rome last Christmas. I booked through CO and they will hold reservation for 1 week. The MR to CO transfer is instant. But since you only have 200K, that will only get you ONE business class SAVER award. Or use all your MR to get 4 award tickets in economic. I think that will save you a big chunk of money.
First of all, a saver business class award on CO is 100K miles round trip, not 200K ("standard" award is 250K round trip). Secondly, a MUCH better way to use your MR points for a trip on Alitalia would be to transfer the points directly to the Alitalia MileMiglia program, for two reasons: (1) Alitalia only charges 80K for a saver business class award, and (2) given the choice, it's much more convenient to book directly with the operating airline as opposed to through SkyTeam when you're dealing with things like ticket changes, irregular ops, etc.
Best value for hotel is to use SPG point for hotel in any Europe city because Euro is so STRONG! A 100EU hotel + VAT & other fees, you will be paying 250$ per night for a small hotel that barely fit 2 people.
Not that this is too related to the OP, but while the euro is strong it still doesn't cost $2.50 (not yet, at least). VAT is included in European hotel rates, so you're really looking at more like $150-160 for a 100 euro hotel room. Good point though about SPG points being a great value in Europe right now. Too bad they're starting to go up in category now to match the exchange rate! I'd suggest looking for Cash & Points rates (the cash part is priced in USD) to really stretch your 77K points.