hi just joined

["Alchemie foto\\grafiche" <fotocomics@xxxxxxxx>]

Those information are not correct

>Hey. Try these first, if you like. They are
>smaller and less complicated than the current
>Gimp releases, and can get your feet wet with
>the layout and commands... 

They are no smaller no less complicated 

on the contrary Gimphoto include a lot of additional plugins so even more complexity  ... even if a good organization of menu help to minimize that complexity

As for Gimpshop is a deprecated poor hack based on a obsolete, almost archaic version of Gimp and will only add a lot of bugs to Gimp
(and a really buggy single windows layout )

Here a good guide to start with Gimp
http://www.gimptalk.com/forum/beginning-with-gimp-starting-tutorial-for-new-users-t34772.html

And Meetthegimp offer also good introductory video tutorial