Route/Itinerary/Airport Suggestions

And these are my questions for you:
Where are you going after Italy?
Are you going back to Paris or somewhere else? If somewhere else where?
What time of the year are you traveling?

Once we know more details we can answer better.

For now I can tell you that you may not need to fly to Rome.
From Paris you can fly to:
Florence and Pisa (both in Tuscany)
Naples (near Positano and Capri)
Olbia (Sardinia) - but only seasonally.

From Naples you can fly to Olbia and Cagliari (both in Sardinia), but Olbia is connected only in Summer.

From Pisa (Tuscany) you can fly to Cagliari, Alghero, Olbia (all in Sardinia) and Florence (Tuscany) you can fly to Olbia.

I recommend to fly between Sardinia and wherever in the mainland. The ferry is a long journey and it costs as much as a plane ticket. Rental cars are often not allowed to be taken across on ferries (check the contract) and in any case it makes no sense. It's cheaper to rent it in Sardinia than to ferry a car across.

For suggestions on beaches and Sardinia, search above. I've given suggestions in the past and past posts will pop up.

Roberto,
We will be arriving in Italy July 1st.
After Italy we are coming back home to Florida, US.
Thank you for your very informative and quick response.
Alina

Alina when flying innor out of Paris use Orly or Charles de Gaulle airports. Ryanair uses Beauvais airport which is 90 kms outside Paris and requires a bus and train to get into city, while the two other airports are closer in and much easier to commute to .

Hello!
This could be an itinerary for you: fly from paris to naples and visit Positano and Capri. Take a train from naples to tuscany (high speed to florence or intercity to arezzo, chiusi, pisa... What you prefer). Here visit tuscany by car. In tuscanyyou can take a ferry to Olbia from livorno or Piombino or to golfo aranci from Livorno. The ferry travel it's about 6-7 hours long but i prefer overnight departures. The car ticket on ferries is very expensive so it has no sense to travel with a car for rent. If you prefer, you can fly to sardinia from pisa. You could also do the reverse trip: paris-pisa or florence and naples to sardinia but there are not a lot of flights and a ferry journey from naples to sardinia si very long (about 13 Hours).
At the end, flight to florida from sardinia.
Il you love beautiful beaches in sardinia i advice the north-east coast. (La cinta in San Teodoro il wonderful, la caletta, berchidda, posada...). You could also visit sardinian mountain villages that are the real sardinia.
I hope to be helpful.

Below I cut and pasted some past posts where I gave suggestions on Sardinia.

I always went to the north side of the island (I always stayed in Gallura area) so I don't know much about the southern half. I also like the North-Eastern coast (Basically Santa Teresa down to the Olbia area), but overall the entire northern coast is beautiful including Stintino area. I recommend that you take a boat excursion from Santa Teresa di Gallura or from Palau to the Maddalena Archipelago (a national marine reserve/sanctuary). Be aware that the famous and very beautiful Costa Smeralda (emerald coast), basically from Porto Cervo to Golfo Aranci, is the playground of the rich and famous with huge yachts, therefore prices are higher.

Francesco above gave you some good itinerary recommendations, however I wouldn't bother to take the ferry from Livorno. If you were going to Corsica (Bastia) then yes, because it's a short journey and flight options to Corsica are limited, but for Sardinia I'd definitely fly, preferably from Pisa (Florence only has some flights with Mistral Air, aboard a prop ATR72 airplane). If you stay in the north, it is best to fly to Olbia or Alghero (from Pisa Ryanair flies to Alghero and Alitalia to Olbia), since Cagliari, Sardinia's capital, is down in the south.

If you do the reverse loop and fly to Sardinia from Naples, NAP has several flights to Olbia (OLB) with Alitalia, Easyjet, Meridiana, Volotea (check all from prices and times).

As we all mentioned ferry the car across is very expensive (like two plane tickets, which are very cheap on the low cost airlines), therefore it makes absolutely no sense (it may also be not permitted by the rental contract). Just rent at the Olbia or Alghero airport, or if you decide to take the boat from Livorno, you can rent at the port when you arrive.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sardinia-10e5a248-2848-4d78-8fdc-14a40d512964
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sardinia-dcae366a-bba7-46be-90c5-3e10c36671ba
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/sardinia-a4b6bf34-12f0-4f41-aa46-cc7c08ab1f7f

Fly. Paris Orly- Naples.
Easyjet. 2H10min.

Taxi to port. Ferry to Positano.
3 nights.

Ferry to Capri. 2 nights.

Ferry to Naples. Taxi to airport.

Naples-Cagliari (CAG). 55 min.
Pick up rental car.
4 nights. Drop car.

Ferry Olbia-Piombino. 5 hours.
Personally, I'd fly from one of the airports Roberto mentioned.

Pick up car, drive to Tuscany.
4 nights.

Fly home from Florence or Milan.

Public transportation in Sardinia.

http://www.gaveena.com/how-to-travel-with-public-transport-in-Sardinia

Edit bus and ferry schedule
Amalfi coast.

http://www.positano.com

Thank you to all for the great suggestions and information. Below is what we have in mind. We are still having a bit of a hard time trying to decide where to stay in Sardinia. We have been looking up places on Air BnB and what we have found thus far is that there are more options to stay beach front in the South or West side of Sardinia. Even though the east side has great options but not exactly on the beach. Are there other websites that anyone can recommend (maybe local places) for accommodations?? We really don't like hotels. We much rather rent a home or apartment. We are thinking of 3-4 nights.

This is our tentative itinerary:

Departing on Sunday June 24, 2018 from:
Arriving in Paris on Monday, June 25th
Departing Paris on Sunday, July 1

Sardinia
Easy Jet (from Orly) & Meridiana (from CDG) fly from Paris to Olbia on Sundays
If we decide to stay in the South we would fly into the other airport.

Olbia to Naples
Question: should we get a private car or bus to travel to Positano? We are planning 3-4 nights. Do you recommend renting a car while we are in Positano or should we just use the bus??

When we decide to visit Capri we will ferry over for the day.

We also want to visit Amalfi. Does anyone know which bus we should take? How long is the ride? Once in Amalfi what are some of the "must-do's"?

Next, is there a train from Naples to Tuscany? How long is the ride?

What region in Tuscany is the most picturesque? I know it's all beautiful...but we are happy to hear suggestions and why you recommend it. We want to stay in the middle of a vineyard but still be close enough where we can drive into a small town for dinner. We are also looking into Air BnB accommodations but if you know of anyone locally with a rental please let us know. Same thing for Positano. 3-4 nights.

We are definitely planning on tending a car while we are in Tuscany and returning it at the airport in Florence. Is this possible and do you recommend a car rental place??

Fly out from Florence back to Florida, USA.

Thank you so very much for all your responses, advice & recommendations!!
A & F