That's certainly true for most Americans; in the United States, escargot is not a delicacy but a perennial joke. (I don't find it unpleasant, particularly, but I also don't really see the point; it strikes me as one of those things people eat, not for its own sake, but rather to be seen so doing.)
I've had snails - "bovoeti" is the local term - here in Italy, and... yeah. There was so much garlic you couldn't really taste much else. And there are other, better things to eat, like octopus. One of the things I'm very proud of as a father is having cultivated a wide range of tastes in our ~6 year old daughter, who happily slurps down octopus tentacles at one of the local food carts. And they are good - I'm happy to take anyone who stops by Padova to have some.
Here in Spain, snails are considered somewhat of a delicacy (they're usually served inside their shells, with a somewhat spicy sauce); I don't think that's too different than, say, eating oysters and other sea bivalves (also heavily consumed in many varieties), but I think that the cultural shock for Americans (and possibly most Europeans) is similar to that of eating insects.