Walking through foodscapes: Analyzing the culinary pathways of Italian migrant women in Chile

This article explores how urban food places shape identity, memory, and gendered roles in the context of migration. Drawing on a feminist and interdisciplinary framework, the study investigates the everyday food practices of three Italian women living in the Chilean city of Valparaíso-Viña del Mar. Using a walking-based qualitative methodology, the research analyzes how migrant women navigate and signify urban spaces through food-related practices. The findings highlight how markets, cafés, and restaurants become symbolic nodes that sustain cultural belonging, challenge or reproduce traditional gender roles, and foster personal and collective wellbeing. The study identifies three interrelated themes: the search for Italianness in food places; the ambivalence of gendered responsibilities in the migration context; and the symbolic nourishment provided by urban culinary spaces. The walking method enabled participants to narrate their experiences in connection with specific places, bringing to light spatial, sensory, and emotional dimensions often overlooked in traditional interviews. This work contributes to urban studies by offering a culturally situated and gender-sensitive perspective on how migrant women inhabit, experience, and transform the city through food. It also advances methodological reflection by proposing a protocol that can be adapted in future studies of urban life, mobility, and belonging.