[Apr. 2025] We went to Stuttgart, Germany for the first time.
It had been a long time since I had been outside Italy.
The reason is that it took me nine months to get a visa to live in Italy.
During that time, I had been advised that it was okay to take a direct flight outside the European Union (EU) and return, but it would be better to avoid going to EU countries.
When I finally got my visa and thought, “Now, where should we go?”, my husband and I discussed, “Let’s use the ITA Airways points that are expiring.”
So, out of the destinations with direct ITA flights from Milan, we chose Stuttgart as a place we had never been to and that looked interesting.
However, between the time we booked the flight and the time we flew, Lufthansa decided to invest in ITA.
I think that was the reason, but the direct flights to Stuttgart were discontinued.
The rescheduled flight was to go via Frankfurt both ways.
As you can see from the map, the flight distance between Milan and Stuttgart is about an hour.
If you go via Frankfurt, the flight time alone is twice as long.
Moreover, because of this change, we were unable to purchase our checked baggage online, and there was a lot of arguing at the airport, resulting in a huge loss of time.
And interestingly, after a lot of arguing at Milan airport, they agreed to carry our baggage for free, but at Stuttgart airport, although the arguing was short, we still had to pay.
This is where the differences in national character come into play.
Changing planes was a hassle, but the flight itself was smooth.
At the train station at Stuttgart airport, we bought a one-way ticket (€3.30 per person) and took the S-Bahn to the central station.
We asked someone there, changed to the U1 and headed to the Park Inn hotel near Marienplatz where we had made a reservation.
However, my husband was getting hungry and had been searching for the location of a restaurant I had looked up beforehand while on the plane.
And while we were on the U1, he suddenly said, “It’s a 9-minute walk from here,” so we jumped off at a station along the way.
It was a quick decision, but I think it was a good one in the end.
Anyway, the name, Stuttgart is a hard one to pronounce, isn’t it.
