re: too bad they couldn't include a piggyback lander or atmospheric probe
Sadly I doubt they had the budget and time for a lander that could survive for more than a few hours on the surface of Venus. And I am sure the failure of Beagle 2 will stigmatize such ESA endeavors for a while, even with the amazing success of Huygens at Titan.
Though here is a plan should the ESA or someone else want to implement it:
http://www.msss.com/venus/vgnp/vgnp.txt.html