Through the implementation of the KA131 Erasmus+ project, our primary objective was to advance the internationalization strategy of our university by facilitating high-quality mobility opportunities for students and staff within the European Higher Education Area. We sought to enrich participants' academic journeys through exposure to diverse teaching methods, curricula, and cultural contexts, thereby broadening their global outlook and academic perspectives. In addition, the project aimed to strengthen institutional cooperation with partner universities, fostering long-term academic collaboration, joint research opportunities, and shared best practices. By encouraging intercultural dialogue and enhancing language proficiency, we also intended to empower participants with key transversal skills—such as adaptability, critical thinking, and intercultural competence—essential for their personal development and future professional success in an increasingly interconnected world. Ultimately, our goal was to contribute to the creation of a more cohesive and inclusive European education space, where mobility is not only a learning experience but also a driver of innovation, mutual understanding, and shared European values. Althought, in numerical terms, the mobilities carried out have decreased (in particular SMS mobility), students and teaching/administrative staff participated in the project with enthusiasm. In addition, the number of incoming students, professors and administrative staff is growing year by year. This means that Politecnico di Bari and the city are becoming more and more international and attractive. They are recognized as destinations where you can live the Erasmus experience in the best possible way. Unfortunately, we've not able to carry out all the planned study mobilities. This is a phenomenon that we still struggle to fully understand: at the application stage we usually receive around 400 submissions, but as soon as the rankings are published, a significant number of withdrawals begin to arrive. It almost seems that many students apply merely to “test” their potential placement in the ranking, without the real intention of embarking on the experience. This attitude highlights a certain lack of enthusiasm towards the programme: students do not appear to be truly “eager” for Erasmus and fail to realize that, by withdrawing, they primarily harm themselves, depriving themselves of a unique opportunity for personal and academic growth. The situation is quite different, however, for staff mobilities (STA and STT), which have exceeded both expectations and the initially planned numbers. At last, the academic community seems to have understood that Erasmus is not only about students, but also represents a valuable opportunity for staff. We are particularly pleased to see the growing number of mobilities among technical, administrative and library staff (TAB), a sign of increasing awareness of the professional and personal value of these experiences. Although financial resources remain limited, the University has chosen to reallocate part of the funds unused for student mobilities (SMS) to increase the number of staff grants, thus allowing more colleagues to experience Erasmus. After all, what applies to students also applies to TAB staff: engaging with institutions, colleagues, cities, and different contexts means growing, enriching oneself, and bringing back new ideas and best practices to our University.