how to order at a deli

One pound is 454 grams.

What Americans call 'ham" Italians call "Prosciutto Cotto" (literally "cooked prosciutto).

If you want cured ham, i.e. prosciutto, ask for 'prosciutto' only or 'prosciutto crudo' (literally 'raw prosciutto').

Italians order cheese and cold cuts by Hectograms (1 Hg = 100 g), or in short "Etto" or "Etti" (plural).

So if you want 200 grams of prosciutto (a bit less of half pound) you would order "DUE ETTI DI PROSCIUTTO", if only 100 grams, then you order "UN ETTO DI PROSCIUTTO".

One pound would be a bit more than 'QUATTRO ETTI DI PROSCIUTTO"

..and then you have to specify which kind of prosciutto you want---Parma, San Daniele, etc etc....

Oh, my, there is such glory in the salumi and cheeses of Italy!!!

Thank you all for being so fast and helpful. I've been reading many different answers. Example: ask for una Libbra of ham which would be near a pound....but its better to order 450 grammi for about a pound. Your answer was much simpler quattro etto is around a pound and due etti close to 1/2 lb.

Yes, you need to order in 'etti', nobody would know what a 'libbra' is!

If you know that 454 grams is 1-lb, could you write down how many grams you want and point to the meat or cheese in the deli case? Not just for Italy, but any country where you are not familiar with the language?

Here locally I ordered 1.5-lbs of shrimp at the seafood counter one day. The lady filled the bag, then put it on the scale which read in lbs and ounces and started counting out as she added more shrimp, 1 point 2 pounds, 1 point 4 pounds, 1 point 5 pounds. I didn't feel like explaining that the 5 was not 0.5 pounds, but 5 ounces, so I asked her to add a few more until it got to "1 point 8 pounds" and said that it looked like that would be enough. Shrug.

I think Italy also uses the thumb for "one" as a hand signal, not for "thumbs up -OK". I saw a fellow traveler who just confused the seller by thinking she was signaling OK with her thumb, after asking for two pieces of fruit..

So Italians start counting with their thumb like Germans?

Good to know.