Why not Trieste?

Doubt you’ll get an answer from Rick himself -he doesn’t frequent this forum

He can’t include every location in Italy so he chooses what he considers most important

Because it’s not interesting enough.

He's selective otherwise his Italy book would be thousands of pages long! Definitely check out other travel books. I recently read Trieste and The Meaning of Nowhere and found it an interesting read. Trieste has a fascinating history.

Probably the best ever book about Trieste:
“Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere” by Jan Morris, Faber and Faber, 2001.

“Venice” by Morris is in my humble opinion, required reading before visiting that beautiful enigmatic city.
Edited to add that Roubrat above beat me to the punch, posting a couple of minutes before me. Great minds thinking alike, perhaps.

Great minds, indeed. And you just reminded me that I need to pickup that book before I go to Venice next year...

You’d find Venice second hand. Morris revised the 1960 original in 1993, but either edition works. If Morris’ style grabs you, take a look at Coronation Everest. Written by James Morris before their gender reassignment, the story of Ed Hillary’s climb in 1953.
“Conundrum”, Morris’ account of the gender reassignment is great, really gets you inside her head.

Morris writes not so much travel books, rather books about travelling. I have a little shelf of Morris books. Love them.

If you’re wanting a guidebook that includes Trieste, you could look for one published by someone other than RS - Lonely Planet, for instance.

I'll see your Jan Morris and raise you a Dasa Drndic:

https://www.npr.org/2014/01/16/255855258/never-again-trieste-is-a-harrowing-mix-of-memory-and-memorial

Her book named Trieste is actually more about Istria than Italy, but it leaves Morris in the dust. Search the forum for my earlier comments on it.

I sighted some sobering monuments in Canneragio, in the Ghetto, a sequence, a story.
Monument No 1. A tablet, let into the wall, generally detailing the things that Jews were not allowed to do in Venice, and providing for a reward for anyone denouncing people (i.e. Jews) for blasphemy. The reward to be funded from the property of the blasphemer, punishment fully detailed, secret denunciations invited. It is dated 26 September 1704, but I find it hard to believe that such persecution was still happening at that time, but two hundred and thirty years later it certainly was. Every Jewish child in the Ghetto would have understood fully the significance of that tablet on the wall. The restrictions on Jews only ceased in 1797, with the arrival of Napoleon, barely two centuries ago. The Lion of Venice has been hammered off this tablet, and I can imagine the enthusiasm with which this little piece of civic vandalism was conducted.

Monument No 2. A tablet, listing the names of Venetian Jews who died in the 1915-18 war, patriotic Italians, who happened to be Jewish, and supported Italy in spite of Monument No 1.

Monument No 3. A tablet, immediately opposite No 2, erected by the remnants of the Venetian Jewish community, abhorring the deaths of 200 Venetian Jews, 8000 Italian Jews and six million European Jews in the Holocaust. The Venetian Jews branded as undesirables, in spite of the patriots named on Monument No 2.

Monument No 4. An apology by the Mayor of Venice, in Hebrew, Italian and English, to the 200 Venetian Jews who were carted out of Venice on the fifth of December, 1943, and the seventeenth of August, 1944. Signed by the Mayor, Mario Rigo, I believe in 1979, well after the erection of Monument No 3, but an apology none the less.

Monument No 5. A structure made of horizontal timber boards, bound with vertical steel straps. The names of the 200 Venetian Jewish victims are engraved on the boards. The whole effect is of a cattle truck, and is most profound - I spent a time reading the names, Elena Serini, aged 14, Scandiani Diena, aged 81. I have no idea what their story is, and possibly this is the only monument they will ever have.

Monument No 6 is not meant to be a monument at all, but I can’t help but see it in the sequence. It is a small kiosk in the Ghetto, to contain the three or four security guards on duty there all the time. That’s a monument to intolerance, and can too easily lead one back to Monument No 1.

"but it leaves Morris in the dust"

I disagree, the Drndic book is a hard read that focuses on victims of WWII with a little Trieste sprinkled in, whilst Morris captures the befuddling state of Trieste. Plus, you're comparing two different genres - Morris's non-fiction account versus Drndic's fictionalized take on history.

Books evoke differences, that's my take on two.

The Dasa Drndic Trieste book looked familiar, and sure enough, it's sitting on the bookcase in my husband's home office. This edition with the red print https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11812200-trieste?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=ac70T6MJcS&rank=1

Been to Trieste and it was OK, but nothing to get excited about.

I have several old Michelin green guide books that used to have rating for places to visit.
Three star rating was it was a Must See place.
Two star rating was something like visit if you can detour there.
One star was don't detour to go there, but if you are passing through near there, stop and see it.

Probably not exactly right, but close.
Trieste might get one star.
Places like Rome, Venice, Florence, Amalfi Coast, Sorrento/Capri get three stars (at least in my opinion).

@periscope , thanks for standing up for Morris' book - it deserves our support!