Balilla was the nickname of Giovan Battista Perasso, a Genoese boy who started the revolt of 1746 against the Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of the Austrian Succession by throwing a stone on an Austrian official.
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: "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. Later on, Italy's Fascist Government named the Opera Nazionale Balilla (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, "Il Canto degli Italiani", 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".
Two Italian navy submarines were named Balilla