Please help access gmail with IMAP

[Gerardo Ballabio <gerardo ballabio gmail com>]

Hello all,
I tried to configure Balsa to access my gmail account with IMAP, but
failed. Please help.
For the moment I'm only interested in reading email, not sending.

Gmail instructions say I should first activate IMAP in the Gmail
settings. I've done that. Then they say I should set up my email
client as follows:

Incoming mail server (IMAP), SSL required
- imap.gmail.com
- port: 993
- requires SSL: yes

So I opened Balsa, clicked Edit/Preferences/Remote mailbox
servers/Add/Remote IMAP mailbox, and filled the fields:
- Mailbox name: gmail
- Server: imap.gmail.com
- Username: gerardo ballabio gmail com (tried also without the
@gmail.com part, same result)
- Anonymous access: not ticked
- Remember password in keyring: ticked
- Password: <my gmail password>
- Folder path: INBOX
- Identity: <blank>
- Decrypt and check signatures automatically: If Possible
- Advanced/Use SSL: ticked
- Advanced/Use TLS: If Possible (greyed out)
- Enable persistent cache: not ticked
- Enable bug workarounds: not ticked

But when I tried to open the mailbox, it popped up a dialog asking:
Password for gerardo ballabio gmail com@imap.gmail.com (imap):
And when I typed in the password, it popped up again and again. After
maybe five tries it gave up.

I figured that Remote IMAP mailbox might not be the right choice and
tried Remote IMAP folder too. I filled the fields:
- Descriptive name: gmail
- Server: imap.gmail.com
- User name: gerardo ballabio gmail com
- Password: <my gmail password>
- Anonymous access: not ticked
- Remember password in keyring: ticked
- Subscribed folders only: not ticked
- Always show INBOX: ticked
- Prefix: <blank>
- Advanced/Use SSL: ticked
- Advanced/Use TLS: If Possible (greyed out)
- Advanced/Max number of connections: 20
- Advanced/Enable persistent cache: ticked
- Advanced/Use IDLE command: not ticked
- Advanced/Enable bug workarounds: not ticked
- Advanced/Use STATUS for mailbox checking: not ticked

This time it seems Balsa doesn't even let me try to open the folder:
when I click on it in the left pane, it doesn't move the focus.

Can you tell me what am I doing wrong please?
If you need to know, I'm running Debian stable and the Balsa version is 2.4.12.

Thank you
 Gerardo