•Lymnaea stagnalis, a reductionistic, yet sophisticated model to address fundamental questions in learning and memory.•Learning and memory in snails have been highly conserved.•The “molecular actors” memory are similar both across phylogenetic groups and learning paradigms.•Lymnaea stagnalis teach us the importance of context.•Lymnaea stagnalis to understand in what conditions we memorize, we eat, we memorize, we age.•Lymnaea is a valid and reliable model to move research from pond to bench to bedside. The purpose of this review is to illustrate how a reductionistic, but sophisticated, approach based on the use of a simple model system such as the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis (L. stagnalis), might be useful to address fundamental questions in learning and memory. L. stagnalis, as a model, provides an interesting platform to investigate the dialog between the synapse and the nucleus and vice versa during memory and learning. More importantly, the “molecular actors” of the memory dialogue are well-conserved both across phylogenetic groups and learning paradigms, involving single- or multi-trials, aversion or reward, operant or classical conditioning. At the same time, this model could help to study how, where and when the memory dialog is impaired in stressful conditions and during aging and neurodegeneration in humans and thus offers new insights and targets in order to develop innovative therapies and technology for the treatment of a range of neurological and neurodegenerative disorders.