Does the location support how the trip will actually be used?
A hotel can be chosen for what it is. A base has to be judged by where it places you every day.
That second question cannot be answered well until the trip’s repeated movements are visible. A neighborhood may be appealing and still create friction between the stay and the places the trip repeatedly needs to reach.
The same problem appears when one base is asked to perform two different functions.
A decision in practice
Initial instinct
Use one Florence stay for both the city and rural Tuscany.
ELUZA decision
Give Florence and the countryside separate bases, then choose the rural base according to roads, meal access, driver needs, and recovery time.
Why
The city and countryside are geographically related but operationally different.
What it protected
Florence’s concentration and Tuscany’s slower function, rather than a compromise that weakened both.