We visited Trajan's Column where we were in Rome recently. I remember learning about this column in history lessons so it was amazing to see it first hand. The column is built from marble disks and is completely covered with relief carvings ascending the column in a spiral to commemorate the Emperors victories in the Dacian Wars. We were only able to view the column from street level when we visited although I saw that there were walkways constructed in the forum area for pedestrian access.

Although not so easily seen to really investigate Trajan's successes this is nevertheless worth spending time to see. Try and imagine the one upmanship of the various Emperors as they vie for who did what for SPQR!

I visited Trajan's Column with friends from Bwrdd Crwn Caergybi, Cymru / Holyhead Round Table, Wales during our exciting and fun filled tour of Rome with Italy Segway. We were in Rome for our annual rugby trip in the RBS 6 Nations series and chose the Italy v. Wales match for 2017. Our party of eight had booked their Imperial Rome tour. It's a three hour tour for small groups of up to eight persons around Rome's historical sights on a Segway! This was the first time a few of us had been on a Segway so it was important to become accustomed with this amazing machine! Our excellent guide Mattio (Matt) patiently took us through our paces and after some tuition and practice under his expert guidance, my Segway and I were ready to tackle the streets of Rome!

Trajan's Column was among the many famous sights I enjoyed on our tour. I also enjoyed visiting the Arch of Constantine, Circus Maximus, Colosseum, Orange and Rose Garden, Palantine Hill, Roman Forum and Santa Maria's Church and it's Bocca della Verita wall sculpture. We were fortunate to have Matt as our leader on his Segway as we carefully snaked behind him through central Rome. He's a very experienced guide and he shared his knowledge with us via the headphones of the wireless audio system we used during the tour. His entertaining commentary informed us that this ornate column, located in Trajan's Forum north of the Roman Forum, was built to commemorate Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It's about 35 metres high and the shaft consists of a series of huge drums made from Carrara marble, each apparently weighing nearly 32 tons! The drums illustrate detailed scenes and figures and apparently depicts over 150 scenes and more than 2,600 figures, with Trajan's portrait appearing on the column over 50 times! This freestanding column was completed in 113 AD and it's design became the model for other similar victory columns in Rome.

Our itinerary didn't allow enough time to study the column in detail and to take in some of the more famous scenes such as the one which artistically describes the epic wars between the Romans and Dacians in 101–102 AD and again in 105–106 AD. This column is worth a visit and ticked another box on my Segway tour of Rome's Roman heritage. The tour was very good value at 75 Euros per person when considering how much I saw of Rome's famous sights and all the fun I had on my Segway!