Balilla

Balilla is the nickname of the boy who, according to tradition, started the popular uprising in Genoa against occupying Austrian troops on 5 December 1746 by throwing a stone at soldiers in the Portoria quarter. The revolt drove the Austrians from the city within days. He is usually identified with Giovan Battista Perasso, and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries he became a patriotic symbol, later used by the Fascist youth organisation.