I noticed that in the code in the Project Structure page (http://ionicframework.com/docs/v2/getting-started/tutorial/project-structure) there is written:
<button ion-item *ng-for="#p of pages" (click)="openPage(p)">
But in the sample I just downloaded there is:
<button ion-item *ngFor="#p of pages" (click)="openPage(p)">
The difference is in *ng-for/*ngFor. Anyway, it works.
I hope not having got an old version of the tutorial 