Fig.: to speak bluntly; to call something by its real name, avoiding euphemisms

Let's call a spade a spade! They call it downsizing, but they are just sacking troublesome people

La chiamano ristrutturazione, ma - diciamo pane al pane! - in realtà è il licenziamento mirato di persone scomode ## During his official visit, the Pope had the courage to call a spade a spade and said that what they were trying to pass off as people's government was actually a dictatorship

The Government's effort to call a new tax on Social Security benefits a spending cut was too sneaky by half. "Just call a spade a spade - said the opposition - it's not a savings, it's a tax"

Il tentativo del governo di far passare una nuova tassa sui benefit della Previdenza Sociale come un taglio alle spese fece insorgere l'opposizione che disse: "Chiamiamo le cose con il loro nome; non è un risparmio, è una tassa"

Why don't you call a spade a spade? Your new "pard" is not just an unpleasant man, he's a rude, uncaring, selfish man!

Perché non dire pane al pane? Chiamiamo le cose con il loro nome: il tuo nuovo "amichetto" non è semplicemente poco piacevole, ma è un uomo rozzo, egoista e menefreghista!

The ultimate source of this expression is Erasmus' translation of Plutarch's Apophthegmata, where the phrase in question, was mistranslated from the original Greek: the Greek words for "spade" and for "boat" or "bowl" were very similar, and it seems likely that the better translation would have been "to call a boat a boat".