First Timer to Taly -Need Help

I live in Northern California (Sacramento) and fly SMF to LAX in mid-morning and fly out of LAX around dinner time all the way over the Atlantic without stopping so I can sleep on the plane and wake up in Europe (sometimes transferring in London) rather than driving to SFO. There are very few flights from SMF to SFO and those are more expensive than flying to LAX. I don't make my connections short if there is fog or a late plane I want to able to make a later flight to LAX. So that means a long lunch at LAX. If your planning on seeing Venice I would look into starting there and working you way south, that's because most flights leave out of Venice too early for me to be at the airport. Rome has departures at much more reasonable times of the day. As for planning I used to take a photocopy of the map Italy and use different color highlighters: dot the cities, and train timetables to see what route worked out best with the least overlapping. No more that 3-hour train rides between cities for me. By the time you pack up, move, check in and unpack most of the day is shot. I like a mix of types of places: ocean, hill towns, mountains, big city. What I mean by that is I don't visit Rome and Florence on the same trip. Most people do and that works for them, but I'm not a city girl (should I say old lady?) Enjoy yourself, J

Hello jammie.rodriguez, and welcome to the forum!

First thing I would do is get the RS guidebook for Italy and do some reading on Italy in general and also check out his (and other people's) general tips about European travel as well as videos and walk throughs of things like packing.

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning
https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show/european-travel-skills-part-1 (also parts 2 and 3)

You will want to go between May and October if beaches are your main focus since beaches have seasons that follow the weather. If you are really going for a month and starting earlier in the I would start in the south and work your way since it warms up in the south first. You can fly into Rome (direct) and out of Milan (with a connection) into SFO if that's your main airport and I would suggest something like this plan. Fly in and work either north to south or vice versa and then fly out on the other end.

Elba and Ischia are both islands that will obviously require riding the ferry to visit but you will also need to narrow these down to actual town locations. Sardinia will probably require a flight to get there so be prepared for that.
The closest beach area to Pisa is Spiaggia Marina di Pisa but this is a rocky beach and probably not what you are imagining. I would look slightly further north to Viareggio and northwards running from blue collar to fancy in places like Forte dei Marmi.

If you're interested in upscale coastal there is also the beach areas of places like Santa Margherita Ligure and Rapallo which is more about making the scene than the beach or keep travelling farther southwards to Chiavari and Sestri Levante if you want a more genuine Italian summer experience.

Sorrento is a lovely cliffside town but has little in the way of a real beach experience. It is largely used as the gateway to Pompeii, the island of Capri and the Amalfi coast since that's as far as the train goes. From there you will have to travel by taxi. bus or ferry to transfer to the actual Amalfi coast of film and TV. You can also travel by train to Salerno and ferry to Amalfi coast from there. Salerno is a large city and has more options but is decidedly less charming than the decidedly more expensive Sorrento.

Italians love their beaches in summer so be sure to book early because you will be competing with Italians to book rooms in places like Viareggio and with both Italians and tourists to book places like Sorrento and the Amalfi coast.

Aside from the Amalfi coast all these locations are reachable by train. Your Tuscan towns are very rural and a rental car or driver is going to be a requirement since public transportation in rural Tuscany is a challenge.

It seems like so far you have various destinations from photos or videos that you want to visit. Knowing what you want is always where you need to start but now you need to start to string those areas together and decide what will work and what you want to see most.

Hope that helps,
=Tod

I would start with a map, and take a look at where everything is. You also haven't really said how long you want to stay in each place.

I would suggest trying to fly in to one place and out of another. Into Milan would be the most obvious and out of Rome, as they tend to have the most flights from the west coast, although perhaps from LAX you have more options.
I would drop Sicily and Sardinia. They both deserve a trip of their own.
You also need to decide if you are renting a car. Trains ( and busses) in Italy are excellent, but may impact the ease of getting somewhere like Elba
With that, you could consider the following itinerary. If you stay 3-5 nights in each will give you 3-4 weeks:
Milan
Lake Como
Tuscany- consider Siena as a base if not renting a car
Elba
Either Amalfi or Sorrento
Ischia might be a nice option for near the end
fly home from either Naples or Rome, giving yourself 2-3 days to see either.