It's Saturday, mid-afternoon. I pick up the phone in my hotel room, dial reception and ask if I could see a copy of the dog menu - which, according to the brochure, offers a choice of two-course pooch meals.

Less than two minutes later, there is a buzz at the door and a member of staff delivers a folded, cardboard sheet displaying the culinary options for canines. (For reference, a soup of rice, vegetables and meat a la carte costs £12 and a second course of lamb and rice, £13)

In that little sequence is displayed the very essence of a five-star hotel - one indulgence after the next, all of them wholly unnecessary, but served up in such an attentive and personalised way that one cannot help think each is the most natural - and important - thing in the world.

The Cavalieri has since 1963 occupied a 15-acre park on Monte Mario, a hill close to the Spanish Steps and overlooking the centre of Rome. Now the hotel has been elevated still further, becoming a top-of-the-range hotels run by its operator, the Hilton Hotel Corporation (HHC).

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The Rome Cavalieri Hilton is the latest to join the Waldorf Astoria Collection - Hilton's flagship brand - joining the eponymous New York hotel, first opened in New York in 1893, as well as others in Jeddah, Hollywood and, soon, one in London.

The re-branding will be largely cosmetic - a significant overhaul has been carried out over the last two years - and is part of a broader expansion of the Waldorf brand that will involve opening chapters in some 15 European cities over the next couple of years, all in what Hilton calls "unique properties with a historic element."

"What we want to do is build up an exclusive collection of hotels which have a unique situation in their city and are on the top of the five-star luxury scale," says Wolfgang Neumann, HHC area president for Europe.

"But let's be clear - we're not doing this in Blackpool. This is about the key cities, the gateway European cities."

(He remains tight-lipped about the location of the London 'chapter', saying only that it will not be an existing Hilton property, but will occupy an historic building.)

The Cavalieri, for its part, should fit in fine.

It has four pools, a three-Michelin star restaurant, art collection valued at £100 million, grand spa with Turkish bath, jacuzzi and sauna.

The service is near faultless and whether it's the small touches, like the gold-encusted pot of fresh mint to flavour your Norwegian spring water, or the more obvious highlights, like the Planetarium suite, with a 140 square metre private terrace accessed through a retrievable, motorised roof panel, there is a sense of unprescribed indulgence.

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