Italy, Kingdom. A National Fascist Youth Organization (Onb) Ninth Eastern Mediterranean Adventure Cruise Medal

(Opera Nazionale Balilla). In bronze, obverse illustrating a three-masted ship with the sails released, three dolphins swimming in the waves below, surrounded by the inscription "IX CROCRA AVANCITI MEDITERRANEA ORIENTALE", reverse illustrating an anchor fronted by a stylized fasces butting a pennant, within a circle of chains, surrounded by the inscription "OPERA BALILLA A XI" and engraver marked "MORESSCALCHI.", measuring 34 mm in diameter, extremely fine.

Footnote: The Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning between 1926 and 1937, when it was absorbed into the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL), a youth section of the National Fascist Party. It takes its name from Balilla, 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. Perasso was chosen as the inspiration for his supposed age and revolutionary activity, while his presence in the fight against Austria reflected the irredentist stance taken by early Fascism, and Italy's victories in the First World War.