A potential downside to the Grand Hotel Le Rocce, here outside the city of Gaeta, in the southern half of Italy … is the stairs.

The hotel is built into a cliff. Ingeniously so. The builder(s) took advantage of every bit of semi-flat area to build a pavilion or a little garden and, eventually, five living areas, a reception, a restaurant and a pool — while working from the sea up to the road.

The hotel, then, has something like 25-30 individual areas, and it seems as if only a few are on the same level as anything else in the hotel.

Which means …

Lots and lots and lots of stairs.

Running up here, down there, arriving at one place via two or three sets of stairs before, finally, reaching the patch of sand right on the Mediterranean, which remains quite cool, this early in the year.

All the levels make the place charming. Each is decorated a bit differently, purposed for groups or for viewing or for sitting in a garden setting.

Going downhill is, of course, no great problem.

Going back to your room from the areas nearest the water … can be a problem.

No elevator. No escalator. No vehicles to run you up the hill.

Just the steps, and you are on your own.

One of the handful of complaints about the hotel, on tripadvisor.com, is the steps. Said one plaintive (and short-term) guest: “It is 400 steps from the water to my room.”

Someone from the hotel weighed in and suggested it was not nearly 400.

So I counted for myself. When down on the large green area just above the sea, I took the final 29 steps down to the sand and the sea. Then counted them from there back to my room, which is on the highest living area.

I lost track of how many sets of stairs I was on — 20, maybe? — but I did not lose track of the steps.

236. Way less than 400.

The climb still is a bit of a chore. It probably is the equivalent of climbing something like 18-20 stories in a high-rise. Which most of us would think twice about doing on a daily basis.

However, the benefit here is … instead of a blank and boring staircase, the hotel has plenty of gardens to cross and colorful vegetation and the view (and sound) of the sea accompanying you all the way to the top.