Learn these and not only will your italics improve, your everyday handwriting may well benefit too. There are several basic movements which you will use again and again for similarly shaped letters. This page now goes into the nitty-gritty of exactly how you form italic lettering.
'italic calligraphy' page, which gives some general practical tips on how to write the script. If you haven't already seen it, you might be interested in the So, anytime you want people to be able to read easily what you have written, and at the same time for them to notice that the writing is beautiful and a little formal, consider using italics. This is partly to do with the letter-forms themselves and partly about factors such as spacing and proportions. Italic calligraphy is a little more decorative than roundhand, but maintains a very regular appearance.