Chock Full O'Symbolism
Well for starters, it's important to know that we're reading a translation of a book that was original written and published in Italian, so the style we end up with in English is part-Lampedusa, part-translator. That said, though, Lampedusa's writing is so jammed with symbolism that his images all convert pretty well from Italian into English.
Seriously, pick out any random line in this book and you're bound to find it crammed with symbols. Let's look at, say, the first line of the fourth paragraph in the book: "The divinities frescoed on the ceiling awoke" (1.4).
Now this isn't literally what's happening. What Lampedusa is saying is that the Roman gods and goddesses painted all over the walls of the Salinas' house are so vivid that they look as though they're alive.
But this description suggests that centuries of tradition are living within the walls of the Salina house, as well as in the members of the Salina family. It also suggests that Fabrizio has a soft spot for the Roman deities... which is true, as well see at the end of the book when he hallucinates that he sees Venus before him.
Now that's quite a bit jammed into a 7-word line, but it's representative of what you're going to get in this book: symbolism, a side symbolism salad, some symbolism chips and a nice glass of symbolismade.