Rome is incredibly rich in masterpieces: painting, sculptures, monuments ... Everybody knows that.  But it is less obvious that a lot of those treasures are visible without queuing and without having to pay entrance tickets.  In fact, many of them are not closed in museums where you have to fight with crowds of tourists. At the contrary, very often they still are on the places where they were originally, in their "natural surrounding": in the churches. 
It is particularly the case of one of the most extraordinary artist of the whole history of painting: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573- 1610), the great master of the "chiaroscuro" and the pioneer of realistic painting. Seven of his works are exposed in four different roman churches, not very far one from the other.
The most intensively moving experience is perhaps to discover his St Mathieu triptych (painted between 1599 and 1602) in "Saint Louis des Français", the French church of Rome with a beautiful and austere Renaissance facade (end of the 16th century) and a very rich late baroque interior decoration (beginning of the 18th century). In the fifth chapel on the left of the altar, the Contarelli Chapel, you can admire "The Calling of St Mathieu" facing "The Martyrdom of St Mathieu" (with a self-portrait of the painter on the left side of the painting) and, in the middle, the marvellous "St Mathieu and the Angel" called also "The Inspiration".

With the eyes still full of the magic contrast between light and dark that makes the Caravaggio paintings so alive, you are ready to see other works of the great artist. Just a few minutes walk is necessary to go to another church of the same part  (Campo Marzio) of the old roman "centro storico", "St Augustine". When you enter into the church and look on the left side, you find yourself in front of a luminous and though very human "Madonna del Loreto", called also "Madonna dei Pellegrini" (Madonna of the Pilgrims). The model that Caravaggio used for this unusual Madonna was a girl friend of him, Lena, a roman prostitute.

As you are already in that church, have a look to the third pillar. You'll be touched by the beauty (and a marvellous blue colour!) of  "The prophet Isaiah",  a fresco painted by Raphael a hundred year before the Caravaggio's barefoot Madonna.

The third church where you can see two other Caravaggio is "Santa Maria del Popolo", on the famous "Piazza del Popolo (a quarter of an hour walk from the St Augustine) where  "The Conversion of St Paul" and " The Crucifixion of St Peter" are one opposite the other in the Cerasi chapel. But, before that, you can have a look to the place where Caravaggio lived and worked, just near St Augustine, at the number 19 of a little street, the Vicolo del Divino Amore.  

There is a fourth church, the "Santa Maria Immacolata" (via Veneto) where you can admire, in the sacristy of the church, a "Saint Francis in Meditation" that was considerate until recently as a copy. According to different experts, that is the original painting and not the very similar one exposed in the museum of Palazzo Barberini! 
After these splendid experiences, you will probably want to see all the other Caravaggio's paintings exposed in roman museums (the third of all his work is in Rome). The richest one is the Galleria Borghese (with 5 paintings!). But there are some Caravaggio also in Capitoline Museum, Palazzo Barberini, Palazzo Corsini, Doria Pamphilij Gallery and the Vatican Museum.

That is not all. In the Villa Ludovisi (near via Veneto) you can discover the only ceiling that he ever painted: an allegory of the Paracelsus alchemical triad where  Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto are, in fact, Caravaggio's self portraits.
And, last but not least, from the 24th March to the 3 July, you can make an extraordinary sensorial journey, a total immersion in the Caravaggio's world with the "Caravaggio experience", at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (via Nazionale). Thanks to a video installation with the use of a sophisticated multi-projections system, original music and even fragrances, created by the famous Florence's pharmacy "Santa Maria Novella" that existed already in the Caravaggio's days.

"La Terrazza" is an unforgettable Ettore Scola's film from 1980. It is there, on a beautiful roman terrace that a group of left-wing intellectuals and politicians played by the most famous actors of that time (Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi,
Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli etc), meet regularly.
During the parties, they drink, eat and have vivid and stereotypical discussions that Scola caught, without pity, in his entourage.
It is again on a terrace that, thirty-five years after, Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo), the main character of the recent Paolo Sorrentino's "La Grande Bellezza", will meet the companions of a new roman Dolce Vita where the terrace is no more a café on the Via Veneto, like in the sixties of last century, but a private house.

In fact, it is a very old tradition. Already at the time of the ancient Romans (the rich ones, of course!), the terrace was the most important place in the house for at least the half of the year, when the whether was nice enough to live outside or so hot, in the stifling narrow streets, to need more air. "Solarium" was the name for the roof terrace. "Peristyle", for an opened space surrounded with colonnade, more often in front or around a monument, but also in some luxury private houses.
When you walk in the centre of Rome, You just have to look up and you'll see, amongst the roofs, a lot of beautiful "hanging gardens". Most of them are private properties: the rich Romans live often in apartments and not in houses, but the terrace is a "must".
If you don' know any rich Roman where to have a diner party with the view on the Colosseum, like in "La Grande Bellezza", don't worry:  All the famous hotels of Rome have a roof garden restaurant and bar.

The best one is probably (according different guides) the restaurant "La Pergola" on the roof of the hotel Hilton, with the German (yes!) chef Heinz Beck. An artist!
A lot of other hotels have also a roof restaurant with a panoramic view:  Hotel Hasller (above the Spanish Steps), Hotel Minerva (near the Pantheon), Hotel Forum (with a view on the Imperial Forums), the Bernini- Bristol (Piazza Barberini)...and so many others!

You can discover splendid views without spending fortunes. For example, from the Terrazza Cafarelli, on the top floor of the Capitoline Museums where you can have a coffee or a cappuccino even if you don't go to visit the museums.

There are also, because of the conformation of this unique city constructed upon seven hills, a lot of  "natural" terraces, where you can just go and have a look around.
From Trastevere (starting to climb from the viccolo del Cedro, near Santa Maria in Trastevere), for example, you can have a walk to the Janiculum hill. Or, on the Aventine hill, to the "Orange Garden" (just next from the famous key hole of the "Knights of Malta" with a view on Saint Peter) that has a belvedere with a magnificent view.
If you prefer to do something easier, you can just walk to the Pincio (Villa Borghese), above the Spanish steps and discover at your feet, from the terrace of the Pincio, the huge and beautiful Piazza del Popolo.  And if you go down, on the Piazza, you can have a rest in one of the two historical café-terrace: Canova or Rosati.