Balilla was the nickname of Giovan Battista Perasso, a Genoese

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 boy who started the revolt of 1746 against the Habsburg

Habsburg Monarchy

The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...

 forces that occupied the city in the War of the Austrian Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession  – including King George's War in North America, the Anglo-Spanish War of Jenkins' Ear, and two of the three Silesian wars – involved most of the powers of Europe over the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the realms of the House of Habsburg.The...

 by throwing a stone on an Austrian official.

Story and legacy

The word Balilla is widely held to mean little boy, and thus one of only two clues about Perasso's age (the other being an Austrian report that makes reference to "a little boy" throwing stones at officials); however, some have suggested that the name is merely a pet form of Giovan Battista/Giambattista.

Legend asserts that while dragging a piece of artillery through a muddy road in the Portoria neighborhood of Genoa some Austrian soldiers forced onlookers and passersby to dislodge it from the moat in which it had gotten stuck, cursing and lashing at them: disgusted by the scene Perasso allegedly grabbed a stone from the road and skilfully threw it at the Austrian patrol, asking his fellow citizens a question in the Genoese dialect

Genoese dialect

Genoese is a dialect of the Ligurian language, the one spoken in Genoa .Ligurian is listed by Ethnologue as a language in its own right, of the Romance branch, and not to be confused with the ancient Ligurian language...

: "Che l'inse?" ("Am I to begin?" or "Shall I start?") setting in motion an uproar which eventually caused the Austrian garrison to be evicted from the city. The phrase became proverbial in Italian as well.

For his supposed age and revolutionary activity, Perasso became a symbol of the struggle of Italian people for independence and unification

Italian unification

Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...

. Later on, Italy's Fascist Government

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

 named the Opera Nazionale Balilla

Opera Nazionale Balilla

thumb|240px|A young balilla in [[Piazza Venezia]].Opera Nazionale Balilla was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning, as an addition to school education, between 1926 and 1937 .It was named after Balilla, the moniker of Giovan Battista Perasso,...

 (ONB), a school-grade scouting-paramilitary youth organization, after him. Accordingly, the anthem of the ONB began with the verse "Fischia il sasso/ ... " (The stone whistle/ ...)

His memory is also reported on the present (but composed in 1848) Italian National anthem

National anthem

A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...

, "Il Canto degli Italiani

Il Canto degli Italiani

Il Canto degli Italiani is the Italian national anthem. It is best known among Italians as Inno di Mameli , after the author of the lyrics, or Fratelli d'Italia , from its opening line...

", popularly known as "Fratelli d'Italia" (Brothers of Italy): "I bimbi d'Italia / si chiaman Balilla / il suon d'ogni squilla / i vespri sonò". The second reference is to the 1282 insurrection called the "Vespri Siciliani

Sicilian Vespers

The Sicilian Vespers is the name given to the successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out on the Easter of 1282 against the rule of the French/Angevin king Charles I, who had ruled the Kingdom of Sicily since 1266. Within six weeks three thousand French men and women were slain by...

".

Italian Navy Submarines

Two Italian navy

Regia Marina

The Regia Marina dates from the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861 after Italian unification...

 submarines were named Balilla

• The former German U42
  SM U-42
  SM U-42 was ordered in Italy at the FIAT Works in Genoa, but was never completed for Germany, being taken over by Italy. See Balilla class submarine....
  
   which was building at the Fiat yard in La Spezia when Italy entered World War 1, sunk in 1916
• The nameship of the Balilla class submarine
  Balilla class submarine
  The Balilla-class were the first submarines to be built for the Italian navy following the end of World War I. They were large ocean-going cruiser submarines designed to operate in the Indian Ocean based in Italy's East African colonies. The design was double-hulled and based on the German Type UE...
  
  s laid up in 1941 and scrapped after World War 2.