Balilla

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Balilla was the moniker of Giovan Battista Perasso, a semi-legendary Genoese character who would have started the local revolt of 1746 against the Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of Succession.

[edit] 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.

The full legend asserts that Perasso was the first to attack the troops in the Portoria area of the city, asking his fellow citizens a question that, although uttered in the Genoese dialect, has passed as a catch phrase into standard Italian: "Che l'inse?" ("Am I to begin?" or "Shall I start?"). The episode itself is not backed by any piece of evidence.

For his supposed age and revolutionary activity, Perasso became a symbol of the struggle of Italians for independence and unification. Italy's Fascists named the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), a youth organization functioning between 1926 and 1937, after him.