Like ClareK, I found this book slow going in the beginning. Perhaps the problem, for me, was the difficulty of visualization, as suggested by Bookworm_Girl. Although I liked the words, I could not see the country.
Just before the halfway point, Fermor talks about the Danube school of art.
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As I walked along the Danube, I was traversing, without knowing it, an important minor sub-division of art-history.
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He goes on to describe 'The Danube School'. Now I could see the scenes as he described them. This is the line where Fermor finally gained my full attention and I started to enjoy the book:
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When no buildings were in sight, I was back in the Dark Ages. But the moment a farmhouse or a village impinged, I was in the world of Peter Brueghel.
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I love Pieter Brueghel and suddenly my visualizer was working overtime: stark bare trees against white snow, charming old buildings, codpieces....okay, so the tendency to visualize half-undone codpieces kept me amused for a good long while. But I was finally engaged with the book.
I also loved the author's description of his venture into free enterprise by going door-to-door soliciting portrait-making business. It was hilarious.
Had I not updated my Kindle PW so that it included flashcards and easy Wikipedia searches, I may never have come to enjoy this book. The author's vocabulary was over my head. I still have dozens of flashcards with mostly architectural terms to go through again. Rarely, or never, has a book added so much to my vocabulary, thanks to the updated Kindle.