Telepass

In Sicily there are a number of toll roads.  Like in the states they have a system to electronically pay the toll, called Telepass.  We have been through enough of these toll booths to know what a panic and can be to have and retrive in a short period of time the correct change.  When at the Hertz rental office to pick up the car I thought if we could get a telepass that would save a lot of trouble on the road.  It sounded like a good idea.  Well it was a good idea most of the time.  The first toll gate we went through, it worked like a charm, however the second one had some issues.  We got to the gate and pushed the telepass button, and it beeped once but the gate did not open.  Fortunately there were no irate Italian drivers right behind me so we tryied to back out of the gate, hoping to go to a gate with an attendant.  As we backed out the crossing gate opened however we couldn't get the Punto to go into drive.  It just sat there beeping at me.  Now the gate closed again, and by the time I figured out how to get the car in drive, the gate was closed and we were stuck.  The telepass wouln't work I think because it already collected the toll on this one gate.  We tried to go to another booth with and anttendand, Tried that, no attendant. Soon the other cars behind me began to pile up and grow impatient.  Finally a voice came over the loadspeaker in Italian.  I have no idea what he was saying but we kept saying, "Telepass non funcitione".  Finally I think for him the choice was to get out of his chair and deal with us, but instead he choose to just open the gate.  That was a panic.  I'm not so sure how good an idea this Telepass was..