Ciao Italia: Live from Italy

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[9]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[10]
Los Angeles Times	[11]

Andrew Perala from Anchorage Daily News complimented the video, saying "If you have a secret fondness for pop singer Madonna, you would want to check out her Ciao Italia, the singer's concert film from Italy. You can be pleasantly surprised at how amazing she is."[12] Heather Phares from Allmusic said: "Madonna's Ciao Italia: Live From Italy captures a performance from her 1988 world tour and features hits like 'Lucky Star', 'True Blue', 'La Isla Bonita', 'Like a Virgin', and 'Material Girl'. A much simpler, less choreographed performance than her later extravaganzas like The Girlie Show World Tour, Ciao Italia is still entertaining in its own right, and will definitely please fans nostalgic for some old-school Madonna hits."[9] Dennis Hunt from Los Angeles Times gave a positive review, saying "A festive Italian stadium show featuring the Material Girl, who's turned into a first-rate entertainer, strutting and singing in flashy production-number renditions of her recent most Billboard topping songs, is indeed a delight. The video captures the enormity of Madonna as a performer, and her theatrics, oomph and chutzpah."[11]

Tom Shales from The Washington Post said that "Ciao Italia works wonderful because it makes Madonna look like she's at home, with her Italian family all around her. [...] A Turin soccer stadium became the sexual center of the universe last year when Madonna, one of our naughtiest superstars, taped this concert there before 75,000 gyrating Italians. Ebullient and insouciant, Madonna sings her hits-including the darkly beautiful 'Live to Tell'—in cavernous stereo; dances engagingly with 14-year-old Chris Finch, the quintessential Lucky Little Boy; and crowns herself queen of teases, bending over to reveal 'Kiss' printed on her underpants [...] Sheer showmanship is present in her performances as well as the camera work of this video."[13] Jim Farber from Rolling Stone said that "this version of Madonna's Who's That Girl Tour returns the star to the medium where she excels best. On videocassette, however, Madonna makes manipulation seem like an exciting message indeed."[14] Colin Jacobson from the DVD Movie Guide however, gave a negative review of the album, saying "Possibly the biggest problem with Ciao Italia regarded the sloppy manner in which the program was assembled. I can’t recall if Italia appeared as a TV special that aired live or if it was taped and edited specifically for future broadcast screenings, but it certainly looked like something that was created on the fly. Sloppy camerawork and editing abound, as those two factors don’t flow together terribly well. It felt as though they tried their best to get appropriate material at the time but that they failed to massage it after the fact."[8]

The release debuted at number 17 on Billboard's Top Music Video chart, on June 4, 1988 and reached number eight the next week.[15][16] The video started a steady climb on the chart, and on the issue dated August 20, 1988, it reached number three on the chart.[17][18] Ciao Italia ultimately reached the top of the chart, remaining there for eight weeks.[19] It was the 27th top selling videocassette for 1988.[20] The video was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipment of 100,000 copies.[21] By 1992, the release sold 35,000 copies of laserdiscs in the United States according to The Hollywood Reporter.[22] Ciao Italia debuted and peaked at number three on the Canadian RPM Top 10 Video chart on June 9, 1990.[23] It was present for a total of eight weeks on the chart.[24] It also charted at number three on the Finnish DVD chart in 2009.[25]

It was released on VHS, Laserdisc and later DVD, in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 on the single-sided, single-layered DVD.[8]