Rotate is just one of the three fundamental controls in the perspective view. You'll need to also 'strafe' (for lack of a better word) the view by holding Alt and dragging with the middle mouse button held down. You may also need to zoom in or out by holding Alt and dragging with the right mouse button held down.

Manipulating these three controls in the perspective view to see exactly what you want may seem very cumbersome at first, but you'll soon get used to it. Alternatively, you can also select a specific part of your model (certain vertices/faces....) and then hit the 'f' key to 'focus' the perspective view on that area.