Balilla

Disgusted by the scene, Perasso allegedly grabbed a stone from the road and skilfully threw it at the Austrian patrol, asking his fellow citizens in the Genoese dialect: "Che l'inçe?"

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

Conversely, accounts of the sack of Genoa by Royal Piedmontese troops in 1849 mention soldiers running through the streets and shouting, "Genoese people are all Balilla, they do not deserve compassion, we must kill them all!".

[citation needed] Later on, Italy's Fascist Government named the Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB), a school-grade scouting-paramilitary youth organization, after him.

Two Italian navy submarines were named Balilla: Media related to Giovan Battista Perasso at Wikimedia Commons