The first Rallye Internazionale di Sanremo was held in 1928, followed by a second successful edition in 1929. After the original organisers handed the event to new management, it was transformed into a street race through Sanremo rather than a rally. The 1° Circuito Automobilistico Sanremo, held in 1937, was won by Achille Varzi. The rally format was revived in 1961 under the name Rallye dei Fiori ("Rally of the Flowers") and has continued annually since.
From 1970 to 1972, Rallye Sanremo was part of the International Championship for Manufacturers, and it joined the inaugural World Rally Championship calendar in 1973.
Rallye Sanremo remained on the WRC schedule almost continuously from 1973 to 2003, missing only 1995 when it ran exclusively as part of the FIA 2-Litre World Championship for Manufacturers. Originally a mixed-surface event using both tarmac and gravel stages, the rally was converted to an all-tarmac format from 1997 onwards.
The event became the centre of significant controversy in 1986 when the stewards disqualified the factory Peugeot team at the end of the third day, citing illegal side skirts. Peugeot had used the same configuration in earlier WRC rounds without scrutineering issues and had passed pre-event inspection. The disqualification handed victory to Lancia, but Peugeot's appeal eventually led the FIA to rule that the Peugeot cars had in fact been legal. As a result, the FIA annulled the results of the entire 1986 Rallye Sanremo rather than reinstating Peugeot's win, making it one of the most unusual outcomes in WRC history.
When Rallye Sanremo was dropped from the WRC calendar in 2004 — replaced by the new Rally di Sardegna — it transitioned to the Italian Rally Championship, where it has continued to be a major national event. From 2006, the rally was also included as a round of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge.
In 2015, the organisers and FIA made a notable historical revision by formally incorporating the Rallye Femminile Perla di Sanremo, a women's rally series held from 1952 to 1956, into the official count of Rallye Sanremo editions. This caused the edition number to jump from the 57th to the 62nd in 2015, a numbering adjustment that has been maintained since.
Rallye Sanremo represents one of the pillars of Italian rally history, with roots stretching back nearly a century. Its long presence in the WRC gave it a rich competitive history involving nearly every major manufacturer and driver of the championship's first three decades. The 1986 disqualification controversy remains one of the most debated scrutineering decisions in WRC history and a defining moment in the understanding of technical regulations in top-level rally sport.