This paper lists some atypical uses of the Italian indicativo imperfetto, unified under their assumed common function, the modal one, for the greater part according to Bertinetto (1986). Emphasis is placed on the imperfetto di pianificazione, which is becoming widespread in every-day spoken Italian. After briefly commenting on aspectual values, background function, and 'Temporal Distance', to motivate the 'modal' uses of the indicativo imperfetto, 'Displacement' and 'Negative Politeness' are dealt with in relation to some of the above-mentioned uses.