Venice- Carnivale!!!

This past weekend I traveled to Venice with my friend Lauren and her mother, Suzanne. Lauren and I met back in St. Louis where she lived at Grace House Catholic Worker down the street from Karen House Catholic Worker where I spend time. So Lauren emailed me last Tuesday asking if I would like to join her in Venice for Carnivale, and naturally, I accepted.
We took the train out on Friday morning and went to our hotel to settle in before we set out to explore the city. We stayed at a beautiful hotel outside of the city called the Villa Odino. We settled into our room and then got on the local train into (or rather out-to) Venice. We didn't see much of the carnivale partying, but word on the street was that due to the weather there were a lot fewer people venturing to the festivities. We only made it to one sight: the Scuola of San Rocco. It was beautiful. It is called the "Sistine Chapel of Venice." It is filled with huge paintings by Tintoretto. We wanted to see other museums and churches, but we did not account for how incredibly hard the city is to navigate. Nearly every street is only two blocks long, and they all just dead-end. We tried to visit the Peggy Guggenheim collection for hours and when we finally got close enough that it was a possibility it had already closed. We did see alot of beautiful art galleries and shops though. I got my first major purchase (major being over €5), a glass dish that now holds my change on my desk. It is beautiful.
All-in-all, Venice is beautiful, but it is so hard to get around that I don't think I'll go back. And the gondola rides cost about €70 per person... translation: $100 for a gondola ride for one person. Sounds like a rip-off to me! Also, the water-taxies cost about $10 per ride. They offer a year-pass for €200, so if you don't buy that then you are clearly a tourist, and a sucker I guess. What a bummer!