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.

Just tell the counter person how many slices of salumi you want..it's simple.

@khansen, here's what rick has to say; hand gestures I know I saw this confuse vendors in Poland too.

. For example, if you count with your fingers, in Europe remember to start with your thumb, not your index finger (if you hold up your index finger, you'll probably get two of something).

I had friends in college who had been to Germany and kept talking about ordering "ein bier" while holding up just their index finger and getting 2. A classmate who was minoring in German explained that Germans start counting with their thumb, so the index finger is two. If you want "ein bier" hold up your thumb. Then I went to work for a German company and noticed that the Germans working there would start with the thumb.

Good to know it's not just in Germany.

In Italian also. When counting you start with the thumb, then the index comes next to count 2.
Then you raise also the middle finger to have 3.
To have 4 however you can either continue with pulling the next finger in the sequence or retract the thumb inside the fist and show all other fingers. To have 5 you pull the thumb back up.
If you are not counting but rather you want to show 4 right away, you would show all fingers except for the thumb, which remains inside the finger.
Don’t use both index and finger to indicate two. That is the horns sign which is an insult meaning that you are a “cornuto”, that is “your spouse is sleeping with someone else”. That could start a fight.
Practice before you go to Italy