The Cerisola sestiere was born from the progressive disintegration during the modern age of the Amandolesi (dial. Mandolexi) district, one of the two ancient suburban districts that since the 12th century subdivided the Rapallo plebeian population beyond the walls that encircled the borough, enclosed between the course of the S. Francesco stream and the Boate river. The toponym (dial. Seixeua) is first attested in 17th-century documentary sources in reference to two rural chapels located between the hill of S. Agostino and the valley furrow of the rio Monti, in an area destined for the cultivation of cherry trees, fruit plants that must have been widespread in the area since the Middle Ages. Cerisola therefore means coast/place of cherries.
The territory of the sestiere now includes a large part of the city centre and is entirely within the parish of Saints Gervasio and Protasio.
The current banner, which flies during patron saint’s days from the flagpole of the historic firing point at the Bagni Lido, was painted by Rapallo painter Italo Primi and inaugurated in 1965. It is the only flag with three representations. In the spaces left free by the red cross on a white field, modelled on the emblem of the Genoese Republic, the two patron saints Joseph and Augustine, to whom the chapel on the hills of the district is dedicated, are portrayed together with the miraculous Quadretto. The Panegirico di Cerisola originally started in Via Laggiaro at the Osteria del Galletto and from there continued along the course of the Cereghetta stream to end in Piazza IV Novembre.
