I am really glad we did the trip. Not only that, when we announced our marriage on Facebook, my best friend from highschool and someone I hadn't seen since I was 16 happened to be in Verona with his wife for the opera - it is a stop on the way to Venice and we managed to have both breakfast and lunch with them (which is why we got to Venice later than we expected) which was brilliant. It was a pretty incredible surprise and chance meeting.
Hotels are generally meaningless to me (if I am paying ;D ) as I don't tend to be in them much. Probably different travelling with a child now though. I have stayed at some pretty bad places over the years too , but not so bad that it is unstayable. In general, places have been clean and I don't care for all the fanciness. I think a lot of people are spoiled by average conditions these days and forget, life can be much worse than even the worst hotel.
I'd have probably needed to make the day trip to the romantic center of Bologna. Where Ducati is headquartered...
Romance is a very personal thing :D
If you make it to Bologna, it isn't far to Maranello and then a little north and you can take a little a ride at Monza ;)