Balilla

Balilla was the nickname of Giovan Battista Perasso, a Genoese boy who, according to local legend, started the revolt of 1746 against the Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of the Austrian Succession.

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 passer-bys to help dislodging it from the moat it got stuck into, 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: "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. Italy's Fascists named the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), a school-grade scouting-paramilitary youth organization, after him.

Italian Navy Submarines

Two Italian navy subamrines were named Balilla

• The former German U42 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 submarines laid up in 1941 and scrapped after World War 2.

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